Love and hate
by Carol Maxwell
Summary: A group of Armored Core fighters come to the Msaki Household. What more could I say 'bout this! Yes, it will eventually turn into a lemon, I never thought I'd write one, oh well
1. No Need For Armored Cores

Hello! This is my second Tenchi fic, also, my first actual romance fic! O.o Is that even possible?! It's like saying I'm sane! But oh well, this was bound to happen sooner or later. *shrugs* I don't own Tenchi Muyo. However! I do own Ashley Nonaka, Jared Azerar belongs to Metal: Gear Tempest, Kyle Jones and all the Armored Cores belong to Madcar. On with the fic! ^^ It's funny, it's some what cool, it's  
  
No Need for Armored Cores  
  
"Nonaka! You better get it right this time!" Jared's voice snapped over the intercom.  
  
The blond muttered something in mock of what he had said, she never did get along well with him, the two were constantly butting heads. Her shamerock green eyes narrowed with anger at Jared. Ashley quickly tapped the few key buttons, and blasted out of the hanger. She was the only girl in this group, her curly blond hair was usually pulled into pigtails, but today, she had it down, but, her signature black bandanna was tied around her head. She wore a white baggy shirt, the short sleeves nearly came down to her wrists, her black boys cargo pants had holes torn in the knees, she had gotten them when she was making adjustments to Beta. She was twenty years old and only five foot three inches, not short, but not very tall.  
  
Her Armored Core was a hover type. In other words instead of legs it had a large hover system on its torso. It was colored Green and White. On it's left arm was a picture of two swords crossed with the word: Myth written under the swords. It's head looked like an alligator's head horizontal with the teeth. A large red Eye in the middle. On it's left shoulder was a large gantlet gun, on it's right shoulder was a missile pod. In it's left hand was a semi-auto rifle and on it's right was a light shield.  
  
She set the coordinates to the location of the Armored Core battle, some weak team had decided to pick a fight with the top ranking team in Neo America. Once it was all set, she placed it on autopilot, and slumped further into her seat. She knew if she screwed up once again, Jared would surely kill her. Then again, why'd she care, he always wanted to do that. She shrugged off the thought and concentrated on falling asleep.  
  
Jared Azerar busily worked on his laptop, he had also set his AC on autopilot, he needed to check the attack plans again, he wanted to make sure they would win. The blond boy was pretty much the brains of the group, he set up the attack plans, the others and him would go through with them in a fight. He had blond hair which he kept cleanly cut, rarely did you see him with his hair messed up. He peered over at his sunglasses, he wore them all the time, he didn't want people to see his mechanical right eye. It was gauged out during a knife fight for a tough bounty head. It was replaced with the computer one so he could operate his AC with it. He wore a blue shirt with a black dragon on it, he also wore loose fitting black jeans. Jared quickly looked up at Iota's power level and other things, then went back to his lap top.  
  
Iota was dark blue all over. It's legs were reverse jointed (just like the back legs of a dog). On it's left shoulder was a picture of Mars before it was Tara formed with a large hole in it's middle. On its shoulders was one large missile pod. In it's left hand was a oversized bazooka and on it's right hand was a laser blade.  
  
Kyle Jones busily nodded his head to the heavy beat of the techno music playing in his cockpit, his shaggy blond hair swiftly flowing with each bob of his head. His green eyes sparkled with happiness, finally, he got to fight! This is what he had been looking forward to all week. He wore a red shirt and baggy black jeans, over that, he wore a brown trench coat. After setting his AC to autopilot, he could do whatever he wanted, Jared never really cared, he did have a habit of chew off Ashley's head at every little mistake. If Kyle screwed up, no big deal. Kyle's AC was Alpha.  
  
The AC was fifty five feet tall. It was Red and black in a tiger strip pattern. It had human like legs and a triangular head with a white slit across its face. On it's left shoulder blade was a symbol that said: Bungie with a small earth as the dot on the "i". In its left hand was a sub machine gun that didn't have a barrel, on it's left should was a large plasma rifle that was folded over on it's self, on it's right shoulder was a large grenade launcher painted black and on it's right arm was a laser blade who's blade could extend twenty feet.  
  
The three ACs arrived at the battle spot, the trio looked around, there was no one in sight, just a harsh wind blew over the empty field.  
  
"Where are they?" Jared growled, everything seemed to be going wrong at the moment, he slammed his fist down on his armrest, his teeth were clenched tightly, his eyebrows knitted together.  
  
Ashley smirked, "What's the matter? Are you afraid we might lose?" She taunted in a sing song voice.  
  
"They might not even show!" Jared argued.  
  
"Your just a coward!" The blond girl shot back, the cocky smirk never leaving her face.  
  
Jared punched a few buttons, "You'll pay!" Jared's AC launched a heavy attack on Beta, knocking it right over.  
  
The girl wasn't strapped into her seat, so she was tossed around in the cockpit until the AC came to a complete stop, she was laying on the floor, she felt a bruise beginning to form on her side. Ashley didn't bother moving just yet, mine as well let Jared think he's won.  
  
Suddenly, the three ACs were surrounded by a blue bubble.  
  
"What's going on?" Kyle cried.  
  
"I have no clue." Ashley responded with both fear and amazement.  
  
"Now who's the coward?" Jared snarled at Ashley.  
  
Ashley didn't even bother answering him, she knew better that anyone else that Jared was scared too.  
  
With a flash of light, the three ACs disappeared without a trace.  
  
~*~  
  
Mihoshi was the first to notice the three ACs coming in for a crash landing in the lake. The sunshine blond had been sweeping up at the shrine with Kiyone, it was the least they could do for letting them stay at the Masaki house hold.  
  
"What do you suppose those are?" Mihoshi asked her partner, leaning slightly on the broom.  
  
Suddenly, there came a large wave of water, which eventually settled back in the lake.  
  
"Let's go check it out!" Mihoshi grinned, she grabbed her partner's hand and literally dragged her down to the site.  
  
~*~  
  
Everyone who lived at the Masaki shrine emerged from hiding and cautiously approached the lake where the three ACs were settled.  
  
"They're Armored Cores." Washu simply said.  
  
"How do you know what they are, Miss Washu?" Ayeka asked politely.  
  
"Well, I am the greatest scientific genious in the universe." She responded with a laugh. The two little A and B dolls popped up on her shoulders.  
  
"Yes Washu!" A cheered.  
  
"The greatest!" B continued  
  
"Washu! Washu! Washu! Washu!" A and B chanted in unison  
  
The whole group took a step back when the cockpits opened up, they were unsure of who or what they were going to see come out of those Armore Cores.  
  
Ashley was the first to leap out of there and land directly into lake, then swim over to the rest of the shore, slightly short of breath. Jared and Kyle were not to far behind.  
  
"Who are you people?" Ayeka asked sharply.  
  
"I know who they are!" Mihoshi squealed, clapping her hands together and smiling.  
  
"How do you know who were are?" Ashley growled at the blond girl.  
  
"Because of the Armored Core show!"  
  
"Well, I guess we really are famous Jared." Kyle joked.  
  
Ashley didn't buy it, she just narrowed her eyes at the group, "You're bluffing."  
  
"I'm not!" Mihoshi protested.  
  
"Then who am I?" Kyle asked.  
  
"You're Kyle Jones, and the other guy is Jared Azerar." Mihoshi quickly recited, then she stopped at Ashley, "Though, I can't remember your name. Are you Sarah Sheen?"  
  
The tough blond snorted, "It's Ashley Nonaka, not that you'll remember it."  
  
"Oh yeah, forgot." Mihoshi said, almost sadly.  
  
"If you forget again, I'll spear you." Ashley snarled, then stomped off into the forest.  
  
"Don't mind her, she's just shaken up from everything that's happened." Kyle explained, strutting over to the group of people.  
  
"Can we stay at your place for a while?" Jared quickly asked.  
  
"I thought you'd never ask." Sasami smiled, "Did you think we were about to leave you here with no place to stay."  
  
"You mean it?" Kyle said in disbelief.  
  
Sasami eagerly nodded.  
  
"Thank you so much!" Kyle and Jared thanked the group in unison.  
  
~*~  
  
As nightfall came, Ashley still refused to come out of the woods, the temperature dropped dramatically, and she hadn't completely dried off from her swim earlier. Another cold breeze whistled past her, causing her to shiver.  
  
"Ashley?" A voice rang out.  
  
She refused to respond, she was sitting in a tree, hoping no one would find her.  
  
"C'mon! Those people were nice enough to let us stay at their house, the least you could do is come and eat!" The voice begged.  
  
"Fine! I'll be there in a minute." She finally answered.  
  
"Thank you!" The voice shouted.  
  
The blond girl swung down from the tree and landed softly onto the ground. Her eyes examined her dark surroundings. Suddenly screams seemed to echo through the woods. They sounded like her parents and her sisters. Ashley shut her eyes tightly, she covered her ears trying to mute the screeches.  
  
"Stop it! Cut it out!" She curled up on the forest floor, tears threatening to spill, "Stop it!" Her voice was growing meaker.  
  
"Ash!" The voice shouted to her.  
  
She looked up, there was Kyle standing over her. She quickly regained her composure, and stood up, the shrieks seemed to have disappeared.  
  
"Are you alright?" Kyle asked.  
  
"Yeah, just fine." Her eyes narrowed and she headed back to the Masaki household. When she got in the house, she noticed Jared's clothes were dry, Kyle's were also. She took a seat next to Ryoko, who was drinking some sake, Ashley just grabbed the bottle from her, and chugged the rest of it down.  
  
"Hey! That was mine!" Ryoko yelled as the tough blond set the empty down in front of her.  
  
"Tough luck." She murmured back.  
  
"Aren't you going to eat anything Miss Nonaka?" Ayeka asked.  
  
Ashley narrowed her eyes at the princess, "I'm just really tired!"  
  
"Tenchi, why don't you show the young lady to her room?" Yosho asked calmly.  
  
"You don't mind sharing a room with Mihoshi, do you?" Tenchi asked.  
  
"No." She growled.  
  
"Follow me." Tenchi motioned for the blond girl to follow, which she did.  
  
When they got to the room Tenchi pulled out the extra mattress thing, you know, the things they sleep on! Ashley quickly snatched it from him and rolled it out in the corner of the room.  
  
As soon as Tenchi left, Ashley shut off the lights and lied down. She reached into her cargo pant pockets and pulled out her two guns, they were ruined, she rolled up her right pant leg and unattached the knife from her lower leg. She set everything closest to the wall, maybe she could get her guns fixed soon.  
  
~*~  
  
During the night, Tenchi woke to the sound of someone crying. He figured Mihoshi must have had another nightmare, but, just to make sure, he slowly got out from his sheets, and shuffled over to Mihoshi and Ashley's room. When he got in there, he saw Mihoshi fast asleep. He quietly tip toed over to Ashley, his eyebrows shot up too. She was sleep crying, but about what?  
  
"Mommy......Daddy....." He heard the tough blond whimper in her sleep.  
  
Unsure of what to do, Tenchi tried waking the girl up, which worked just fine. In a quick movement the girl snatched up one of her guns, and pointed it directly between Tenchi's eyes, which widened in surprise.  
  
"I'm sorry." She murmured setting the weapon back where it was, she quickly wiped off any tears that remained. "What are you doin' in here anyway?"  
  
"You were crying and I came to see what was wrong."  
  
Ashley narrowed her eyes, "I wasn't crying! Now get out before I really do splatter your brains all over that wall."  
  
Tenchi started to open his mouth to argue, but, he thought better of it, and left the blond girl to go back to sleep, he needed his sleep as well.  
  
'I can't believe I did that!' Ashley mentally scolded herself, 'I can't be seen crying like that!'  
  
She angerly punched her pillow, then laid down to go back to sleep, hoping she wouldn't start crying once again.  
  
~*~  
  
The smells of fresh food cooking slowly eased Ashley out of her sleep, she slowly sat up, stretched and yawned. Just then, Jared's head poked in.  
  
"Nonaka! Time to wake up! I have some plans for the next AC battle!" He snarled before walking off.  
  
Ashley sighed, she stuffed her guns back in her cargo pant pockets, and placed her knife back in it's holder. After lingering for a bit, she decided to get Jared's lecture over with.  
  
On her way down the stairs, she nearly ran into Tenchi.  
  
"Good morning Miss Nonaka!" Tenchi smiled to her cheerfully.  
  
The blond narrowed her eyes at him, she knew he was trying to make her feel better, but, she wasn't going to buy it. She continued her way down the stairs, ignoring Tenchi. She took a seat next to Kyle on the couch, Jared had already started when she got there.  
  
"You're late!" Jared growled.  
  
"Shut up and get on with it." Ashley snapped back.  
  
"Very well. As I was saying, Kyle and Ashley, you two will go on for the full front attack, I'll take control over their leader's AC and destroy it. Any questions?" Jared finished.  
  
Ashley raised her hand.  
  
"Yes, Nonaka." Jared said irritably.  
  
"Why can't I take the leader?"  
  
"Because you can barely handle the attack!" Jared snarled.  
  
She narrowed her eyes again, after the meeting she was going to get him, bad.  
  
~*~  
  
The blond didn't bother paying any attention as to who they were fighting, she just kept thinking about how she was going to attack him! As if on cue, Jared closed up his laptop, and disconnected it from the t.v.  
  
"You and me. Outside. Now." Was all Ashley said coldly.  
  
Jared smirked, "Trying this again, eh?"  
  
"Yes!" She growled.  
  
The two quickly headed outside, everyone else seemed to gather all around.  
  
"Get ready to go down, Nonaka!" Jared yelled to her.  
  
"You wish." She answered, swinging a punch at his jaw.  
  
Jared easily blocked the attack and countered it with a punch to her gut. Ashley wheeled back slightly short of breath, not enough to knock her out of the fight. Jared took this oppritunity to punch her square in the jaw, knocking her to the ground. The blond girl started to get up, but was pinned down by Jared's foot, she quickly pulled out her knife, took a stab at Jared's foot, but missed and hit the ground. The blond boy quickly backed up, ready to counter any attack. She pulled her knife out of the ground and dove at Jared with it. He kicked at Ashley's hand, sending the knife flying, he knocked Ashley across the ground, and quickly picked up the knife. Ashley narrowed her eyes and instantly went after the knife, Jared took the oppritunity to stab the angry blond girl in the leg, even though he was aiming for her gut. Ashley sank to the ground holding her leg, blood had already began seeping through.  
  
Ayeka had been watching intently the whole time. Jared was just as good as Tenchi fighting, she felt her cheeks go slightly red when Jared looked at her, he must have figured she was staring at him. His eyebrows shot up, and she saw his cheeks turn a slight pink. She watched him as she stuffed his hands in his pockets and sulked off into the house.  
  
The blond girl quickly yanked out the knife, wiped off her blood on her pants, wouldn't matter because they were black, and she placed it back in it's holder. She looked up to see a hand being offered to her, she looked up at it's owner, it was Tenchi. She glared at him.  
  
"Need some help?" He asked.  
  
"No! I have two legs I can walk just fine!" Her eyes narrowing every second, she quickly stood up, and limped back into the house.  
  
Chapter One Complete.  
  
Hey all! See! It wasn't that bad. And you thought it would kill you. ^^' Well, what'd ya think? Tell me please and thank you! This is your authoress saying that if hackers ruled the world, there wouldn't be any wars, just a lot of accidents. ~*~Carol 'Minion' Maxwell~*~ 


	2. No Need For Hiding

Hello! I am back, yay! Hey, if anyone wants to drop a line, you can e- mail me at Carol_Maxwell@gundamwing.zzn.com or Rappergirl06@aol.com, either one works! ^^ Before I begin, I don't own Tenchi Muyo except for the alternate characters, remember that. ^^ Anywho, on with this part  
  
No Need For Hiding  
  
Ashley sat on the steps of the shrine, she was deep in thought, her eyes had that spaced out look again. It was a beautiful day to be outside anyway, the sun was shining, it was about seventy degrees, and the birds were chirping, instead of being annoying like it usually was, Ashley thought it was kind of melodious today. She sat back and looked up at the cystal blue sky and watched clouds drift lazily by, a gentle breeze rustled the leaves of the trees around the shrine.  
  
She took a deep breath and sighed, she had been there for two weeks, things weren't getting any better, the flash backs were becoming worse, it was getting to the point where Tenchi would be sitting in there with her at night, as if he was watching over her. As if he actually cared.  
  
The blond quickly shook those thoughts from her head, 'Why would he care about someone as mean and nasty as me? Why would he bother wasting his time? Why? That will always be the question.' She questioned herself.  
  
"Hey! Whatcha doing way out here by yourself?" A perky female voice, Ashley would recognize that voice anywhere, she looked up at the blue eyed and blond haired girl.  
  
"Just thinking." The green eyed blonde replied, not facing Mihoshi.  
  
Mihoshi sat down next to Ashley, there was a worried look on the blue eyed one's face. "You're worrying everyone." She told Ashley softly.  
  
Ashley shrugged, "Oh well, s'not(1) like anyone cares 'bout me anyway."  
  
"But your wrong there! Everyone cares!" Mihoshi added by jokingly jabbed Ashley in the arm, "I think Tenchi has a crush on you too."  
  
The tough blond purposely swayed from the punch, she then snorted, "He's got other girls that are dying to get with him, why doesn't he like them at all? Why would he come after me instead? I'm just a hard person, I don't mess with that goopy love crap that everyone else around here seems to be fond of."  
  
The perky blond was a bit hurt by the cold voice those words were spoken in, "Why are you like that?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Why don't you let anyone love you, but then you complain about no one liking you?"  
  
Ashley stared at the bouncy blond, she had no clue as to what to say to her, "I.......I.......I don't know." She was very stunned at the moment, she never really thought about that fact, she had spent so much time pushing people away from her, she never really took the chance to be friends with other people, other then Kyle and Jared.  
  
"You going to be okay?" Mihoshi asked.  
  
The tough blond nodded slowly, not facing Mihoshi still, she was still shocked.  
  
Mihoshi stood and began to walk away, before she did, she faced Ashley once again, "If you ever need anyone to talk to, your always welcome to talk to me, friend." Then she continued away.  
  
Nonaka stared at Mihoshi, 'Friend? What have I done to become her friend?' She rested her head back in her hands, she was still shocked by Mihoshi's words that have etched in her mind, 'Why don't you let anyone love you, but then you complain about no one liking you?'  
  
She tried shaking the thoughts from her head, it was no good.  
  
~*~  
  
Jared sat on the couch, laptop on his lap, his fingers quickly flew over the keys as he continued to type. Someone sat on the couch next to him, but he ignored whoever it was and continued deep into his programming.  
  
"Mr. Azerar, you work too much for a young man." A soft, diplomatic voice spoke.  
  
The blond boy looked up from his mini computer and looked at Ayeka, he shrugged, "If I don't, then, we'll definately lose our fights."  
  
"But, I have seen you and your friends fight, you seem to be getting better all the time, your team is the highest ranking." Ayeka told him.  
  
He nodded, "Yes, but, I want to stay there, Nonaka isn't any good at this stuff, Kyle just doesn't want to do that."  
  
"Have you ever let Miss Nonaka work?" Ayeka asked him.  
  
"No." He shook his head, "We may be in first, but, in a fight, there is very little room for error, Nonaka's Armored Core, Beta, can't take a beating like that."  
  
"I see." Ayeka said, "You don't like her very much do you?"  
  
Jared nodded, then shook his head, "We're friends, just when it comes to Armored Cores, we don't exactly agree. We were in a fight one time, it was a good one either."  
  
"May I hear about it?" Ayeka questioned.  
  
"Sure, it was about two years ago, we had just started out, and it was our first battle as a team............"  
  
~*~Flashback~*~  
  
All three Armored Cores were badly damaged, Beta was barely able to move, while the other team had very little to no damage. A sudden explosion erupted from Beta, Ashley could've been killed in it, but no time to look back. It wasn't long before Iota and Alpha were taken out. Jared and Kyle started scrounging through the very burnt Beta, when they found her, she was near dead, a large scratch across her side was deep and bleeding badly, it formed a scar.  
  
~*~End of Flashback~*~  
  
"She had figured that it was all my fault, so, since then, we haven't gotten along." Jared finished.  
  
"I'm sorry to hear that." Ayeka apologized.  
  
"It's okay, things are starting to get better, she's not fighting me alot like she used to." Jared told her.  
  
"Well, that's nice to hear." Ayeka smiled.  
  
Jared smiled back, he carefully examined her face, it was soft and gentle looking, like that of a lamb, her Jurain (Spelling?) robes did a good job of covering up her body. Jared reached over to her and gently traced his fingers over her cheek, stroking it. Ayeka was very shocked by his sudden touch, but quickly became used to it. The two began leaning toward each other for a kiss, when a sudden shouting instantly got them apart, Jared returned to typing, and Ayeka began watching Jared type rapidly at his lap top.  
  
"Hey! Something's wrong with Ashley!" It was Mihoshi, she looked very frantic.  
  
Jared saved his work and shutdown his laptop and stood up, "What's wrong with her?"  
  
Mihoshi grew more frantic, "I don't know!! She's just in pain!!"  
  
He nodded and followed Mihoshi back to Ashley, Ayeka was following her also. They came to Ashley her was rolling on the ground holding her side. Jared quickly grabbed Ashley by her shirt collar, picked her firmly off the ground and gave her a hard slap to the face. He then let Ashley fall to the ground.  
  
"Mr. Azerar! Why on Earth did you do that to her?!" Ayeka yelled.  
  
"She still has bad memories that hit her all at once, and she just spazzes out." Jared explained.  
  
Ashley shook her head rapidly, she stood up very embarrased looking, she quickly ran off before anyone would say how sorry they were for her, she didn't need their sympathy, she didn't need any of them! All she needed was herself!  
  
The blond quickly found a good hiding spot, deep in the forests around the shrine. She quickly shimmied up the nearest tree and took a seat on one of the lower branches. She leaned against the trunk and looked up to see the tree's branches, she didn't care, she was how she liked to be. Alone.  
  
~*~  
  
Mihoshi looked very worried, the tough blond had been gone for over three hours, after seeing what had happened to her before, she couldn't help but worry for Ashley's safe return. Tenchi was already out looking for her, even if he did find her, and she didn't come back with him, he at least could bring word that she was safe.  
  
~*~  
  
Tenchi found himself winding deeper and deeper into the forest. "Where could she be?" He asked himself aloud. "Ashley!" He shouted, when he got no answer, he continued on, it was growing later and later, his worry seemed to get bigger too.  
  
Suddenly, he was pinned to the ground from someone, the person had jumped down onto him.  
  
"Got you now you little mother......" Ashley started to say knife raised about to stab the now very scared Tenchi. She quickly got off him and put away her knife.  
  
Tenchi clambered to his feet, still very shaken by the sudden attack, "Are you okay?" He asked her in a shaky voice.  
  
Ashley nodded, "Never been better." Her stomach began growling, she decided that it was time to go back and eat something.  
  
"Are you sure?" Tenchi inquired.  
  
She nodded.  
  
"Why did you attack me like that?" Tenchi questioned.  
  
"I thought you were Azerar." She said coldly and began to walk to the house.  
  
"I see." He quickly grabbed her arm, causing her to turn around, and give him a death glare that would scare even the toughest person, but, Tenchi just shrugged it off.  
  
"What do you want now?" She snapped.  
  
"Everyone's worried about you, I'm the most worried for you." Tenchi told her softly.  
  
She snorted, "That's a lie!"  
  
"It's not."  
  
Her eyes widened, "You mean it?" She said slowly.  
  
He nodded, "I really mean it."  
  
Silently, tears began to trickle down Ashley's cheek, her normally hard expression, softened.  
  
"I'm sorry." Tenchi quickly apologized.  
  
"What are you sorry for?" She asked, sniffling a bit, wiping away her tears.  
  
"I made you cry." He told her gently.  
  
Ashley suddenly couldn't control herself, she quickly wrapped her arms around him, he was a bit shocked by this, but he eventually returned the hug and gently rubbed her back, hoping to bring her some comfort. They stood there for a while, just holding each other, swaying a bit to calm down the normally tough blond who was now sobbing and crying into Tenchi's shoulder.  
  
"It's okay, no one's going to hurt you, you just have to give them the chance." He whispered into her ear.  
  
She nodded, then let go of Tenchi, and wiped her eyes dry of her tears, "Thanks."  
  
"For what?"  
  
"For coming for me."  
  
"Your welcome."  
  
"I'm going to go in and eat something." She turned on her heels and returned to the house, leaving Tenchi outside.  
  
"She's getting used to us." The hug that the blond had given him had left a warm feeling, he had been accepted by her, it was a step forward, and a rather nice improvement.  
  
~*~  
  
She had quickly scarfed down a bunch of tasty food, and she was nice and full. She began to head up the stairs.  
  
"Ash!"  
  
Ashley turned around to see Jared there, her eyes narrowed, "What do you want?"  
  
"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for that battle." He apologized.  
  
The burden of hating him seemed to evaporate as he said those words, she smiled softly at him, something she hadn't done for him in a long time, "I accept your apology, Jared, and I hope things will work out better between us." She grinned and moved more quickly up the stairs, this has to be the best day of her life!  
  
Jared watched her turn the corner, and he started down the stairs.  
  
"I'm glad things are working out for you two." A diplomatic voice spoke.  
  
He looked up to be greeted by Ayeka at the bottom of the stairs.  
  
"Yeah, me too." Jared said as he gazed deeply into her eyes. Slowly, their lips etched toward each other, and at long last, they connected for the first time, her soft lips tasted sweet to him. When the kiss ended, they both held each other for a long time before they decided it was time to go to sleep, and the new couple parted ways to their seperate rooms.  
  
~*~  
  
Ashley stretched, yawned, and toggled down the stairs the next morning, she had had a nice sleep, she actually didn't have a bad dream or anything! She felt well rested and younger, although twenty is pretty young.  
  
She wandered into the kitchen to find Sasami whipping up a rather yummy smelling breakfreast, the tough girl inhaled it deeply and let out a happy sigh.  
  
Sasami looked in her direction, "Well good morning!" She smiled cheerily as she stired a pot.  
  
"Mornin'." Ashley said.  
  
"Did you sleep well last night?" The young girl asked her.  
  
"Yes I did, thank you very much." Ashley replied.  
  
"That's nice to hear." Sasami told her, then returned to her cooking.  
  
Kyle (AN: I know, we haven't heard much from Kyle haven't we?) walked into the kitchen and leaned on the counter, he looked very tired, there were even dark circles around his eyes, he was definately not getting enough sleep, if any at all.  
  
"Where have you been?" Ashley questioned him.  
  
He yawned excessively loud and scratched his head, messing up his already messed up hair, it was sticking up in every direction, "Washu's lab, she's been doing some experiments on me." He responed, after he finished talking, he yawned once again, kind of sounding like an overgrown puppy dog.  
  
Ashley raised an eyebrow at him, "What kind of experiments?"  
  
"Nothing of what your thinking, you sick perverted little monkey." Kyle quickly added in. (AN: Yes, in reality I have been called a sick perverted little monkey, dammit! I lost my goddamn banana dildo!! Just kidding, anywho, on with it!)  
  
She shook her head smiling at little, "Whatever you say man." And she wandered outside. She began to walk up to the shrine, maybe she could get some help from Tenchi's grandpa, she had to get this off her chest, since he was head of the shrine, he could help her, or something.  
  
When she reached the top of the stairs, she spotted Mihoshi sweeping up the shrine grounds, she eagerly waved to the soft blond.  
  
"What brings you up here?" Mihoshi asked the fast approaching Ashley.  
  
"To talk with Tenchi's Grandpa." She responded.  
  
"He's not in, why don't you just talk with me?" Mihoshi offered.  
  
The tough blond hesitated for a minute, then gave in, "Sure why not."  
  
The two took a seat on the shrine steps, Mihoshi set her broom down behind her.  
  
"What's troubling you?" She asked Ashley, a gentle smile was on her face.  
  
"My past." Ashley said softly, she rested her arms on her knees, her head began to droop.  
  
"What about it? Tell me, and I'll help you as best I can." Mihoshi smiled softly at her, trying to make Ashley feel more at ease.  
  
"I was very young when I lost them."  
  
"Lost who?"  
  
"My parents, my sisters, my aunts, uncles, my whole family, gone." Ashley explained, "They were killed by the Germans. See, at the time I was five or six years old, Germany was once again growing power hungry, one of the first country they went after was my country, Ukraine, anyone who defied the Germans were killed on the spot, I cooperated, the rest of my family died, murdered in cold blood by those damn German Soliders!"  
  
Mihoshi's looked at her softly with a comforting look on her face, "I'm sorry."  
  
"Don't be, but that's just part of the story."  
  
"May I hear the rest?" Mihoshi asked.  
  
Ashley nodded, "I'll tell. After they were killed, the Germans took me to a training camp, they trained me to shoot to kill without guilt, I was forced to fight in the German army, I was one of the special ones they said, and I was. I outlived most of the soliders who were much older then me, I was around ten when I was put in my first battle. It wasn't pretty, people around me were falling to the ground wounded or dead, some had lost their heads or limbs, there was a lot of blood. During my first fight I was shot through my shoulder, it hurt like hell, but, I was one of the few lucky ones. When I turned fifteen the war was over, and I was free to go, Germany had been subdued once again, and wasn't going to go for power."  
  
"Then what happened?" Mihoshi inquired.  
  
"I had to take care of myself, unfortunately, they hadn't taught me how to read, so, it was difficult."  
  
"Can you read now?"  
  
She paused for a moment, then shook her head, "I can't, I was too busy trying to stay alive after the war, I couldn't go to school to learn to read."  
  
"I'll teach you." Mihoshi told her firmly.  
  
"Really?" Ashley asked.  
  
Mihoshi nodded, "Really, really."  
  
Ashley smiled at her, "Thank you."  
  
"Is that the end of your story?"  
  
The tough blond shook her head, "Not yet."  
  
"Let's hear the rest." Mihoshi said.  
  
"The only reason I was special, was that I could memorize things so fast, I could be told something once and I would remember it, like when I was learning to pilot Beta, I would rely purely on when Kyle and Jared would teach me, that's how I learned the controls. But after living on my own barely making ends meet for a year, I ran and began wandering around on the streets, I had nowhere to go, and nowhere to be. When I was eighteen, I met up with Kyle and Jared, and that's pretty much it. During my first Armored Core fight, Beta was destroyed with me in it, I got a huge cut on my side along with a broken leg and a few broken ribs, and I thinks some burns, I was lucky though." Ashley finished, she then lifted up the left side of her shirt to reveal a long pink scar that ran along her side, after a minute, she pulled her shirt down.  
  
"Why don't we head back for breakfast, it should be done by now." Mihoshi told her, "Then we can get started with your reading lessons."  
  
Ashley smiled, "Let's do that."  
  
Chapter Two Complete.  
  
(1)S'not - it's my own word! it's a cross between it's and not, and it looks like that, i know, I have tooooooo much time on my hands -^.^-  
  
Whoo hoo! This chapter is over! I know, it took a little too long to write, but hey, I'm guessin' write now that not too many people are reading this. *sniff* Thanks to Gensao, the e-mail feature has been added to site, THANK YOU!! But, it's for members only, so, to all you members out there, PLEASE review me, a little note, I don't care, just give me a sign or something!! PLEASE!!! Well, that's all for now, until the next fic, this is Carol saying, Last night I dreamt I ate a ten-pound marshmellow, when I woke up my pillow was gone.  
  
Shinigami Forever!!! 


	3. No Need For Fights

Whoo hoo!! I have returned again!! And with another chapter of Love and Hate! I'm thinking of changing the title to Walking A Fine Line of Love and Hate. It's up to you the readers to say if I should change it! But for now, I don't own Tenchi or anything except the few alternate characters. Now on with  
  
No Need For Fights  
  
Jared and Kyle quickly continued their work on their armored cores, while Ashley was packing her things. Team Middle Hell was getting ready for a tournament, it would last for a week or so, and their team was definately going, who cannot expect the number one team NOT to show up to something like this.  
  
Mihoshi was thinking of going to this, along with Tenchi, Ayeka, and Washu. They weren't going to miss out on cheering on their favorite team members.  
  
Ashley was finished packing when Washu wandered in.  
  
"Hey Washu." Ashley said in monotone.  
  
"Hello." The pink haired woman responded.  
  
"Why are you and Kyle practically spending every waking moment together?" She asked.  
  
"He gave me a certain sample that Tenchi refused to give up." Washu explained, she innocently smiled.  
  
The blond winced, then shuddered, "I won't ask how you got it."  
  
"As if I was going to tell you." Washu responded smiling still.  
  
"Yup." Ashley said, then wandered out with her bag in hand that was filled with her clothes for the week, she had also packed one of Tenchi's shirts, that she borrowed without permission.  
  
As she was walking down the stairs, she saw Jared going up.  
  
"Tomorrow we leave, excited?" Jared questioned her.  
  
"Yeah, I can't wait." Ashley grinned, it was amazing how greatly her attitude at improved over the past few weeks.  
  
~*~  
  
Team Middle Hell and the people that decided to tag along arrived at the place. It was near the woods with an open field in front of it, the Armored cores were kept toward the back, and inbetween them were cabins where the fighters would be staying, actually they were more behind where the Armored Cores were then in the middle. In the field was a huge arena to where the fights would take place, at a safe distance away from the field were the stands where the few brave spectators would sit.  
  
Ashley walked into her assigned cabin, Jared and Kyle said they were going to come by later, they had to check in the team. She set her bag down on the top bunk. She began laying her sleeping bag down and pillow, it was already beginning to feel like home.  
  
"Well, well, well, if it isn't Ashley Nonaka, the once indestructable kid has gone soft? Oh yeah, wasn't your nickname Zero back then?" A voice behind her said cooly, she recognized the voice, and her eyes narrowed in anger.  
  
"You shouldn't talk, Joey Fitch." She sneered, turning around to face him, she then jumped down onto the floor.  
  
Joey stood around six foot five inches, he had blond hair that was constantly spiked up, it kind of looked like Mount Everest. He wore a red jacket over a baggy black shirt that nearly reached his knees, and he had tight blue jeans that had holes in the knees. He had these gray eyes that had a way of freezing you, they just looked cold and icy, it made a winter day at zero degrees, seem warm.  
  
"Shouldn't you be happy to see a former killing buddy?" He asked, crossing his arms. "You can always come back to the army."  
  
"I'm busy." She growled.  
  
"With what? You couldn't read then, and you can't read now, all your good for is the battlefield." He countered.  
  
She couldn't think of anything to counter that, she could read and write a little, but so far just what Mihoshi had taught her so far, but that was just it.  
  
"Well, after the tournament, I'll give you my phone number in case you ever would like to come back and help Germany take power once again." He told her.  
  
"I'm not like that anymore!" She yelled at him.  
  
"You can't hide it, you are one of us, you are one of the perfect soliders, you can't hide from that, you can't run, and you'll always be a killer, a murderer of men, women, and children, regardless of race, religion, or anything, this is who you are, this is who you'll ever be, no one will accept you, they're just using you, just like your commander has always been saying, the only person you have is yourself, ditch your puny team and come back to where you belong." When he finished, Ashley was standing firm, her eyes had grown darker, almost black.  
  
"Yes, that's it, that's it, become the killer, become the killer." He antagonized.  
  
Her eyes continued to grow dark and they were black, she reached into her pocket and pulled out her knife. "I will kill you." She told him darkly, her voice was beyond recognition, it was deep and icy, even when she first arrived at the Masaki residence, it wasn't that mean.  
  
"That's where your wrong, I've gotten better, unlike you." He quickly kicked the knife out of her hand and caught it in his in one quick movement, "You've weakened, you've lost your touch." A nasty grin crept across his face, "You've changed, you've found someone to care for."  
  
"Is that wrong?!" She growled at him, and swung a punch at him.  
  
"Yes." He caught her wrist and began to twist it, Ashley's eyes narrowed more in pain as she heard her wrist begin to crack, Joey suddenly released her now very sore right wrist.  
  
"Why didn't you fully break it, you basterd?" She spat, still glaring at him.  
  
"I want to kill you fair and square in the Armored Core fights." He told her, he then turned on his heels and walked out.  
  
~*~  
  
The group had gathered at a table for dinner later that night, Ashley had been attempting to eat with her left hand while hiding her wrapped up one underneath the table, she didn't want the others to worry.  
  
"Ashley, your quiet and we haven't seen you all day, why don't you tell us what's up?" Kyle said between bites of food.  
  
"Nothing." She took her plate of half finished food, stood up and started to walk away.  
  
At that moment, Tenchi saw her wrapped wrist, "Then what happened to your wrist?"  
  
She looked at him, "It's nothing, I just sprained it, but it shouldn't interfere with my Armored Core fighting skills."  
  
"How's it feeling?" Tenchi asked her.  
  
"A little sore, but, okay otherwise." She turned and quickly left before she was asked anymore questions.  
  
"I think something's up." Jared thought for a minute, "She's never acted like this before, normally she doesn't hide anything."  
  
Kyle nodded, "Yeah, but, I'm sure she'll tell us when she's ready too."  
  
"I'm going to go ask her now." Tenchi told them and started to stand up, but was stopped by Jared who had grabbed his wrist.  
  
"She needs her time to think. She'll tell us when she's ready too." Jared repeated Kyle's line.  
  
Tenchi looked at them a little uneasily, "Are you sure?"  
  
Jared nodded, "I'm sure."  
  
Mihoshi looked up from her meal, "I saw a man walk out of the cabin earlier, maybe he was an exboyfriend."  
  
"It could seem to be a possiblity, but, I don't think he would harm Miss Ashley in anyway if that were the case." Ayeka spoke up.  
  
"Besides, she never had a boyfriend to begin with." Jared explained, "She mostly lived alone or was in the army, either way she didn't need to be distracted by a guy back then, she was barely making ends meet or was killing away."  
  
"I see." Both Ayeka and Mihoshi said at once.  
  
~*~  
  
Joey was working on his Armored Core when he was approached by Mihoshi and Tenchi, Joey's jacket was not too far away from him.  
  
"Hello there!" Mihoshi yelled to the blond boy.  
  
He climbed down, minus his jacket, to greet his guests. As soon as he was down, he looked between Mihoshi and Tenchi, he snickered for a bit, then burst out laughing as hard as he possibly could without falling down.  
  
"You guys are the people she cares about?!" He managed to say between laughs.  
  
Mihoshi was a tad bit infuriated by this, "Why are you laughing?"  
  
The blond boy wiped the tears of laughter from his eyes, as soon as he composed himself, he smiled, "She doesn't care about anyone, back in Germany, the only thing she cared about was if she got to kill a few people or not, if she clung to people, she would weaken, and during this time, it was a kill or be killed world, and she was perfect for that world."  
  
"How do you know her?" Tenchi asked, he was now glaring at Joey.  
  
"We fought in the same regiment in Germany, we are the few survivors of that regiment, the rest were killed because they cared about someone, that's what's going to get Zero killed one of these days." Joey explained.  
  
"Zero?" Mihoshi gave him a rather curious look.  
  
Joey raised his eyebrows at her, "I take it you don't know her nickname."  
  
Tenchi and Mihoshi both shook their heads, causing a slight laugh to come from Joey.  
  
"We called Ashley Nonaka Zero back in those days, she never talked to anyone, the only things she would do was: kill, sleep, eat, and occasionally take a bath. We figured nothing was going through her head, except that killer instinct, that we called her Zero, and there still is nothing going through her head." He told them, a wicked smile was on his face, "You guys better leave her before she kills you."  
  
"She wouldn't do something like that." Mihoshi brightly spoke.  
  
Joey gave her an odd look, "You don't know what your talking about."  
  
"Why do you say that?" Tenchi asked him.  
  
"Because I know her better than anyone ever will, I know who she really is, and since you refuse to believe me, I'll catch you guys later, hell, maybe I'll even come to your funeral." With that, Joey turned around and walked off.  
  
Mihoshi glared at the retreating form, "I can't believe he said those mean things about her!"  
  
"Don't worry, he was just lying I bet, we know Ash a lot better then him, she didn't talk too much back then, so, he doesn't know what he's talking about." Tenchi said calmly, a soft smile was on his face.  
  
The blond girl smiled back at him, "Right!"  
  
~*~  
  
Ashley sat at the edge of a lake she had found that wasn't to far away from the where the armored cores were being held. A breeze shuffled by it ruffled her loose clothes and her hair, she breathed in the fresh air deeply and sighed heavily, she smiled a bit. It was peaceful out here, barely anyone came out here.  
  
Some quacks were heard and some ducks flapped down into the lake, Ashley began to watch them, there were five of them, they would dunk down at different times to feed upon the stuff in the lake. There was some tapping on the trees, she looked around to see a woodpecker at work in a nearby tree, not too far away was a squirrel chewing on a nut.  
  
"I found you." A voice said beside her.  
  
The tough blond looked up to see Tenchi standing next to her, she smiled a bit up at him, "Hi."  
  
Tenchi took a seat next to her, "I talked to him."  
  
"So, you met Joey I take it." She growled, looking back out on the group of ducks.  
  
"Yeah, he told me a lot about you." He told her.  
  
"If you wanted to know, you could've just asked me." She said lowly.  
  
"I didn't ask him, he just kept going on and on." He explained.  
  
Ashley snorted, "Sounds like him, up to his old tricks."  
  
"It's okay though, I don't think he's going to bother you anymore." Tenchi looked out at the ducks that were now swimming around on the lake.  
  
She remained silent and stared out over the lake.  
  
"It's quiet here." Tenchi commented.  
  
"Yeah."  
  
It remained silent, and the only sound that could be heard was the sound of ducks quacking, and the knocking of the woodpecker.  
  
~*~  
  
"THE FIRST ARMORED CORE MATCH WILL BEGIN SHORTLY, AND WE CAN FEEL THE TENSION BUILDING BETWEEN TEAM MIDDLE HELL AND TEAM CLEARWATER!! CAN YOU FEEL IT LADIES AND GENTLEMAN?!!" The announcer yelled to the whole crowd, which roared in responce. "THEN LET'S GET IT ON!! ON TEAM MIDDLE HELL: KYLE JONES! JARED AZERAR! AND ASHLEY NONAKA!! ON TEAM CLEARWATER: CRYSTAL DUFFY! DOMINIC SKOPE! AND SAMANTHA ROBERTS!! NOW THAT WE HAVE THEM INTRODUCED, LET THE MATCH BBBBBBBBBBBBBBEEEEEEEEEEEEGGGGGGGGGGGGGGIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNN!!"  
  
"Jared, remember, Sam's weak spot is her left side, Ash, Crystal's is her left leg, I'll get Skope, LET'S GO!" Kyle said quickly as the other team came at them.  
  
Ashley quickly launched a counter attack on Crystal, knocking her AC back a couple of feet, Jared went straight for the kill, he launched a bunch of missles into Sam's AC and it blew up completely.  
  
"YOU!" Dominic yelled over the radio.  
  
In pure fury, Dominic began to attack Jared's AC, Kyle came up from behind and crushed Dominic's Armored Core like a can.  
  
The three team members began to gang up on Crystal who was left alone.  
  
"MIDDLE HELL'S FURY!!" They yelled at once and launched a bunch a missles at the very beaten AC, it blew up with no problem, and the match was over.  
  
"I DON'T BELIEVE IT LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!! IT'S A RECORD!! THE FIGHT ONLY LASTED LESS THEN FIVE MINUTES!!! NOTHING SHORT OF WHAT WE SHOULD EXPECT OF THE NUMBER ONE TEAM!!" The annoucer shouted.  
  
~*~  
  
In the cabin, the three team members were celebrating like no tomorrow, Kyle had brought some vodka, which all of them had some, at least one third of the bottle each.  
  
"THAT was sooooooooo easy!" Ashley grinned and continued to prance around the room happily.  
  
"I bet the rest will drop like flies!!" Kyle shouted back, and Kyle and Ashley started to dance around together.  
  
Jared shook his head, "You goofs!"  
  
Kyle and Ashley grinned even bigger and laughed, soon Jared was laughing.  
  
Then Ayeka, Mihoshi, Tenchi, and Washu burst into the cabin, "CONGRATULATIONS!!" They all shouted.  
  
"Thank you!!" The team yelled back.  
  
While everyone was talking excitedly about the last match, Ayeka walked up to Jared and started to whisper something in his ear, when she finished, she smiled at him. Once Jared had processed what she had said, his eyes widened and his face turned bright red, everyone stopped and looked at them, Jared was making stuttering noises.  
  
"What'd you ask him?" Ashley questioned her.  
  
"It was nothing." Ayeka responded.  
  
"N-n-nothing m-m-my a-a-ass." Jared stuttered, he was still shocked that Ayeka had asked him to do that.  
  
"What'd she ask you dude?" Kyle asked Jared as soon as they were outside.  
  
"To sleep with her." Jared told him, calming down.  
  
"Dude, you have some experience in that area, remember?"  
  
"Yeah I know, but still, she's innocent in that area, she probably wouldn't know what a dick is if it hit her in the face and lodged itself in her throat." Jared growled.  
  
"True, she does have a sense of inexperience." Kyle said thoughtfully.  
  
"A SENSE?! Try none at all!!" Jared snapped. "What should I do man?"  
  
"You could take it slowly with her?" Kyle looked unsure of his answer.  
  
"That could work."  
  
"Alright then, that's what you'll do." Kyle smiled at him.  
  
Jared smiled back, "Your right." He smiled back as the to exchanged a high five.  
  
"Want to join the celebration again?" Kyle began to reach for the doorknob.  
  
"I'll be there shortly, I have a little discomfort I have to take care of first." Jared told him and walked off toward the bathrooms.  
  
Kyle laughed, shook his head, then went back into the cabin, when he was greeted by Washu, and the group partyed on and on until midnight, when they all went to sleep.  
  
Chapter Three Complete  
  
WHOO HOO!!! GO ME!! I finally finished another part for your reading pleasures, hehehehe! I love it! I hope you do too! And I HOPE there is more then ONE person reading this, I can hope, I think. If you are a member, PLEASE PLEASE!!! E-mail me!! You don't know how much it would be appreciated, please, make my day. This is your authoress saying I knew I was a nut the day the squirrel started looking at me funny.  
  
Shinigami Forever!!!  
  
Carol 'Minion' Maxwell 


	4. No Need For Zero

ALRIGHT!! IT'S A LOVE AND HATE SPECIAL EVENT!! WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP!! Hehehehe! I love it! Anywho, we're gonna take a break from the whole storyline, and go back in time!! Isn't that exciting? *looks too see two in the crowd clapping* Uuum.......Right! ^^() Well, maybe there'll be more of an audience? *crickets chirp, the two audience members stare blankly* Tough crowd, tough crowd. Wait..........What crowd? *sighs* Anywho, I don't own anything except the few alternate characters, thank you. You get to learn ALOT about Ashley Nonaka! C'mon, isn't that the coolest thing to know? *the two audience members claps happily* Shinigami, I really have to get a bigger audience....-.- *suddenly perky again* ^.^ Okay, now on with the special event  
  
No Need for Zero  
  
"Mommy! Sarah took my dollie again!" The youngest sister, Maria, cried, tripping over a few words in her native tounge, Ukranian.  
  
Sarah grinned, her green eyes were gleaming brightly, she then got tired of the whining so she handed the doll back to her younger sister, and all was quiet once again.  
  
Ashley stumbled out of her room, she had just woken up, and was half asleep, she was the oldest, she was five whole years old, Sarah was four, and Maria was three.  
  
"Hi." She mumbled to them. (REMEMBER! They are speaking Ukranian unless I say otherwise! So there! XP''')  
  
~*~  
  
After a rather uneventful morning, and everyone was dressed and wide awake, there was a pounding on the door, Ashley wasn't anywhere to be found at the moment, she was probably in the back yard.  
  
Her mother began to waddle over to the door, her large body caused her to waddle a lot, she was also very hunched over from all the weight she was carrying. When she opened the door, she began to argue with whoever was there, then was shot dead, the German soldiers were finally here in their village.  
  
After a long arguement, everyone but Ashley, were dead. (I know, this is goin' a bit to fast, but, I want to get to the trainin' and stuff, so, yeah.)  
  
The little blond girl wandered in to be greeted by the soldiers, and the bloody mess, her eyes widened, but, she watched the soldiers talk to each other in German, they appeared to be arguing over the small girl's life, finally, the one with black hair and purple bangs, picked up the very frightened girl, he gently rocked her in his arms, and carried her out of the house and to the truck. Once she was placed in the back, she saw she wasn't the only kid there, there were a whole bunch of them. One of them was wearing tight jeans, a baggy shirt that reached his knees, and a red jacket over it, his blond hair was matted down and his gray eyes starred at the newcomer. He smiled, then the truck bgan to move forward to God knows what destination.  
  
"Hey there." The boy smiled, "I'm Joey Fitch, who are you?"  
  
Ashley didn't respond at all, she just remained quiet, all she did was look at him with blank eyes.  
  
"Didn't ya hear me?" He asked her, a curious look on his face.  
  
She nodded silently.  
  
"What is your name? Or do you not want to tell me. Or you just don't want to talk at all."  
  
Again, she nodded.  
  
"Why are you like that, I bet the same thing happened to you and me." He said.  
  
The blond girl shook her head.  
  
"Whaddya mean no, wasn't your family killed to?"  
  
Her eyes went wide, she then nodded.  
  
"Were you really close to them?" He asked, again, he recieved a silent nod. "Don't worry, I'll be your family now, I'll watch out for you. What do you say to that?"  
  
Ashley smiled at that, but she said nothing, she just nodded.  
  
"That's great to hear!" Joey grinned.  
  
After a long journey for five hours or so, the truck came to a screeching halt, the door of the truck was opened and the kids were led out to a camp of some sort, all the kids there were ages five to fifteen, the only adults were anyone in the army.  
  
"I wonder what they want with us here." Joey thought aloud, Ashley shrugged.  
  
"Get in line right now!" A commander shouted at them, the new kids quickly got in line. They went down the line asking each kid for their name, which each gave obdiently, until they got to Ashley.  
  
"Kid, name." Was all the commander ordered, he just recieved a silent stare, "Didn't you hear me kid, what's your name?!" The blond girl remained silent, pissing the commander off even more, "Tell me your name now!!" She still refused to give her name, she continued to look at him. Finally, the commander raised his hand, he balled up his hand into a fist, then swung it at the girl, she narrowed her eyes, and dodged the oncoming blow, the commander growled in frustration, and he managed to kick the girl in the gut, causing her to fall to the ground in pain, holding her stomach. "NOW!! TELL ME YOUR NAME!!"  
  
Ashley looked up at him, her eyes glaring in pain, "You killed them." She finally said darkly.  
  
The commander, "JUST GIVE ME YOUR GODDAMN NAME!!"  
  
"No." Was all she said.  
  
"FINE! I'll give you a name!" The commander shouted at her, "We'll call you Zero, looks like you've got nothing going on in that puny dumb brain of yours." He took one last look at her, then continued asking for names down the line, which he got.  
  
~*~  
  
In the cafeteria, Zero, formally known as Ashley Nonaka, sat by herself eat what they called food.  
  
"Hey you." Someone said brightly as they sat down across from her.  
  
Zero looked up at the person, it was Joey Fitch, she smiled a bit.  
  
"That was cool of you for standing up to that guy, your one tough cookie Zero, I like you, you know that?" Joey was grinning at her.  
  
She nodded grinning as well.  
  
"That's good." Joey took a forkfull of the 'food', as soon as it was in his mouth, he spit it right back out, "What is this crap they call food?"  
  
The blond girl shrugged.  
  
"Your right, who knows." Joey said, "But, hey, it's food." And he basically forced himself to eat it, Zero did the same. Joey looked over to the officers table, "Look at them, they're all the same, they get decent food, and they get respect. What more could they ask for?"  
  
The table was filled with at least twenty officers, one of them caught Zero's attention, for some reason, she felt he was different, somehow.  
  
~*~  
  
A group of kids gathered in their assigned room, about twenty kids were in the room, including Zero and Joey. Standing at the front of the room were the officer the blond girl had spotted at lunch, she would finally see if she was right.  
  
He smiled at the group, he had long dark brown hair that almost reached his elbows, he also had a rather fuzzy beard to match. He stood around six foot two. Zero noted the goggles sitting on his head. His amber eyes seemed to twinkle happily along with his smile.  
  
Joey snickered, "Since when are girls allowed to be officers?" He asked Zero.  
  
The officer looked at Joey, glaring slightly, "I am not a girl, I'm a man, and if you want to survive my training, I dare you to make another comment like that." The officer decided to change the subject, "You all are here to become soldiers, you have been selected because you can learn things faster then I can because of your young minds. You are the best, and will always be the best. We'll start with names."  
  
After getting everyone's names, he came to Zero. "What's your name?" He asked her, llike the commander, he got no response.  
  
"Her name is Zero, that's what one of the commanders decided to call her, she didn't give him her name either." Joey told the officer.  
  
"Did I ask you?" The officer snapped at Joey, he turned back to Zero, "Is that your name?"  
  
Zero nodded silently.  
  
"You're not going to tell us your real name are you?"  
  
She shook her head.  
  
He gave her a concerned look, "Here, tell you what, I'll give you my name, and you give me yours. My name is Kurt Bishop, and you are?"  
  
"Zero." Was all the blond girl murmured.  
  
"No, what's your first and last name your parents gave you?"  
  
"Zero." She repeated.  
  
"Why won't you tell me?"  
  
The blond girl glared at him, then turned her back on him, and started to walk away from him.  
  
"Wait, can you at least tell me your first name?" Kurt wasn't going to just give up so easily on the girl.  
  
"Ashley, but don't call me that, Zero works." She growled, and walked out of there.  
  
~*~  
  
Kurt slumped on his bed, he needed the sleep tonight, that group was going to be tough training to become perfect killers, it boggled his mind that those kids would probably never know anything else but how to kill, they wouldn't know how to play games or anything like he did when he was a kid at their age.  
  
He shook his head, and finally laid down with a very heavy sigh. She listened to him for some reason, that Zero, Kurt didn't understand why that girl didn't seem to like to talk very much, seemed like the less words she said, the better. 'Maybe she could tell that I'm not as blood thirsty as the other people in charge here, just maybe.' After a while of thinking to himself, Kurt eased into a deep sleep.  
  
~*~  
  
Zero continued to stare at the ceiling, she had gotten the top bunk, and she couldn't get to sleep very well, she was too busy thinking about her parents and family who were taken away so quickly, then she was sent here. She felt salty tears sting at her eyes, one left a wet trail down her cheek onto her pillow, which on that note, was pretty hard, as was the mattress.  
  
She shifted to her right side and tried to get comfortable again, it was futile, but, it was as close as she was going to get. She sighed, after a while, she fell into a light sleep, no dreams came to her that night, only the dark night could be seen in her sleep.  
  
~Five Years Later~  
  
The loud trumpeting announced that it was time for everyone to get up. Zero and her group were ready for their first battle, no one was nervous, they had been changed. When they first started, they were innocent children, now, they were cold hearted soldiers, at only the age of ten, it was the minimum age to fight in the army.  
  
Joey smiled at Zero, "Ready?" He asked her as they walked toward battle, guns ready.  
  
The blond girl nodded silently, this is the day she had been looking forward to for the last five years, it was finally time to prove her skills in the battle field, that she was a worthy soldier.  
  
Suddenly, Zero was shaken from her thoughts by sudden gunfire, she too, got in there and started shooting. Hundreds fell to her gun, fathers, brothers, cousins, husbands, boyfriends, uncles, whatever, they were the enemy, and they had to be destroyed.  
  
A sharp pain shot through her right shoulder, she had been wounded, she wouldn't be able to fire back, but she was going to fight the pain, and she continued to fight against them, the enemy.  
  
~*~  
  
After a long battle, only five out of the twenty kids were left, Zero and Joey were two of the five, they were lucky.  
  
~Five Years Later (again)~  
  
Zero began to pack up what little things she had, which were: some old clothes that Kurt had gotten for her, a knife, and a hand gun. The war was over, it was time to move on, she didn't know what to do, most of the people she had known were killed off, Kurt was one of them. The only other person she knew that survived was Joey Fitch, she almost thought they would be friends forever, but he had taken off as soon as the war was over.  
  
The blond girl began to think for a minute, "Maybe I should take back my old name instead of going by Zero." She thought aloud as she walked out of her cabin, bag in hand. She nodded at the thought, "Okay, I'll be going back to the name Ashley Nonaka, at least it's something to remind me of where I came from."  
  
~*~  
  
Little is known about Ashley's life between the age fifteen to eighteen, it was said that she just wandered the streets, somehow surviving, some say she worked as an assassin for hire, no one knows. All that is known, is when she was eighteen, she joined Team Middle Hell. And the rest, is history.  
  
Chapter Four Complete  
  
I know, this one was shorter then the other ones, but, we WILL be back to the storyline in the next chapter! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE ONE REVIEW!! *squeals happily* NOW I KNOW MORE THEN ONE PERSON IS READING THIS ^^ I'M SO HAPPY!!! WHEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!! Okay, I am calm *grinning happily* Otay, that's all for now!! This is your authoress saying, If everything tastes like chicken, then what does chicken taste like?  
  
Shinigami Forever!!  
  
Carol 'Minion' Maxwell 


	5. No Need for Love Making

Okay! I'm back after that BRIEF brake from the story, I know what you all are thinkin', why in Shinigami's name did you go and do that?! Well, I thought you'd all like to read somethin' like that, anywhos, back to the main story line, yes, I know you're all estatic, *looks around to see the same two audience members*, -.- oi.....Well, since I don't want to delay this chapter any longer (I haven't been writin' because I was either sick, cleaning, busy, or, just not in the friggin' mood), let's get it started! Oh yeah, this is a lemon (Shinigami, I actually did get around to writing one, yay!  
  
WARNING!! THIS IS A LEMON!! IF YOU ARE UNDER THE AGE OF 18 OR NOT VERY MATURE, I SUGGEST YOU LEAVE HERE RIGHT NOW, SO DON'T BLAME ME IF YOUR SCARRED FOR LIFE! Man, this is gonna suck, I just know it...) It's semi cool, it's semi romantic (not really), it's  
  
No Need For Love Making  
  
Jared continued to tinker with his Armored Core, he was fixing what little damage had been caused in the first battle, emphasis on little. He kept thinking about what Ayeka had asked him after that battle, he shook the thoughts of that from his head and continued concentrating on the repairs, besides, there was another battle coming up soon, he'd have to really concentrate, or else he, or one of his team mates, would be killed.  
  
He sighed a bit and took a swig of water from his water bottle that was close by, looked up at the sky, big puffy clouds were drifting about every which way, they didn't have anything else to do, like Ashley who was curretly asleep in a nearby tree.  
  
After a while of working, Jared decided to head back to the cabin for a short nap before going back to work on his AC. When he got in there, Ayeka was sitting on his bunk with his laptop, she was deep into whatever she was looking at.  
  
"What are you doing?" Jared asked her curiously, taking a seat next to her.  
  
She quickly covered the screen, "Nothing."  
  
The blond boy thought for a minute, "Wait a second, don't tell me you found my porno pictures on there."  
  
Ayeka laughed nervously, "What makes you say that?"  
  
"You're covering the screen," Jared pointed out.  
  
"How come you don't want to make love with me?" She asked him, looking deep into his wide eyes.  
  
"Um....um....." Jared couldn't think of a reason as to why not.  
  
"How come you don't want to make love with me?" She repeated.  
  
"Be-be-because I'm afraid I might hurt you," Jared then added, "That and you have no expeirence, you're completely innocent in that area, and I don't want to take that away from you."  
  
The Jurain Princess narrowed her eyes at him, "Well, if you want to believe that, then I'll leave." She set his laptop to the side, stood up, and did as she said, left.  
  
Jared looked at the screen, there was one of his porno files opened, he closed it, then shut down his laptop, then closed it. He had hurt her, he couldn't help but feel guilty, but, still, he still couldn't do that to her, that's how he lost his last girlfriend. He sighed.  
  
~*~  
  
Ashley looked down from her tree to see a very perplexed (AN: New word I learned in english class, damn, I actually learned something.) Ayeka storm to the tree, sit against the trunk, then she sighed frustratedly.  
  
The blond girl looked curiously down at Ayeka, she then climbed down to her. "What's the matter Princess?" Ashley asked, hanging upsidedown from the lowest branch by her legs, her arms swung freely about, her shirt end fell down to the beginning of her arms, revealing her tank top.  
  
"Oh, it's nothing that you should be worried about." Ayeka told the very strange blond girl, the Princess was trying not to stare at her.  
  
"But I am worried, you guys have been acting weird since yesterday." Ashley said, swaying back and forth on her branch.  
  
"He won't do it." Was Ayeka told the blond girl.  
  
"Now we're getting somewhere." Ashley dropped down from her branch rather clumsily.  
  
"What's wrong with you Miss Nonaka?" Ayeka questioned her.  
  
"Oh, I had some wine and sake and vodka, but I'm fine." Ashley grinned widely at her.  
  
'Good, she's drunk, she probably won't remember anything tomorrow.' Ayeka thought happily. "It's just Jared won't make love to me."  
  
"Ah, I see the old chap's well has dried up." Ashley laughed a bit, "Have you ever made out with someone?"  
  
"I what?!" Ayeka was shocked.  
  
"Well, you know, french kissed." Ashley told her.  
  
"I don't think Jared's french." Ayeka said blankly.  
  
Ashley grew a bit frustrated, "Have you ever stuck your tounge in someone else's mouth other then your own?!"  
  
Ayeka's eyes wided enormously, "NO! That's not right, it's down right dishonorable!"  
  
The blond girl raised an eyebrow at the girl, "If you ever want to fuck Jared, you gotta know how to french kiss, otherwise, your screwed kid."  
  
"Oh, and I suppose you have experience?" Ayeka snapped, narrowing her eyes at her.  
  
"Hey, do you want my help or not?" Ashley asked, quickly changing the subject.  
  
"Yes, but-" Ayeka began, but was cut off by Ashley.  
  
"Alright then, it's settled!" Ashley grinned. "Now, after you get past the making out part, just follow your instincts, you may not know what your doin', but, if you relax and let yourself go, there's nothing you can't do."  
  
The purple haired girl nodded in understanding, "Then how do the, um, making out part."  
  
"That I can teach you for free." Ashley grinned.  
  
A bright blush came over Ayeka's face, "No, that's okay!"  
  
"Aw, c'mon now, you want to learn don't you?"  
  
"Jared wouldn't like it!" Ayeka growled.  
  
Ashley scooted closer to Ayeka, "C'mon now, do you want to make love to him, don't you?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Good, now, I shall teach you." Ashley grinned.  
  
"Wai-" Ayeka started, but was cut off by Ashley's lips in a sudden kiss. The purple princess gave up fighting the girl and gave in to return the kiss. Ayeka was a bit surprised when she felt Ashley licking her soft lips, she gave in and opened her mouth to let the blond girl's tounge roam around her mouth. As the swapping spit continued, Ayeka began to find that she rather enjoyed it, but, she jumped back when she felt a pair of hands roaming her chest.  
  
Ashley looked at Ayeka, her eyes were half closed, while the purple haired girl's were wide open. "What's the matter Ayeka?"  
  
"You were making me uncomfortable." Ayeka snapped at her.  
  
"You think Jared would make you feel anymore comfortable?" Ashley asked.  
  
"YES! BECAUSE I LOVE HIM!" Ayeka howled at her.  
  
"That's all that matters." Ashley said thoughtfully, then reconnected with Ayeka's lips, as she moved down to Ayeka's neck, Ashley murmured, "Now let me teach you how to use your instincts."  
  
"But Ashley, Jared won't like this, and we're in the open." Ayeka moaned softly.  
  
"Imagine we're on our own place, there's no one here but you and me. And you want to learn don't you." Ashley pointed out as she licked under Ayeka's chin.  
  
"Yes." Ayeka sighed pleasurably.  
  
"Good then." Ashley whispered and continued licking and kissing Ayeka's neck, Ashley felt her heart rate increase as she grew more and more aroused.  
  
Suddenly, Ayeka pinned Ashley to the ground, shocking the hell out of the blond girl. The purple haired princess began to roughly kiss and nip at the blond girl's neck.  
  
"Yes, your doin' good." Ashley encouraged.  
  
Ayeka wasn't doing these pleasurable things, it was her gut instincts.  
  
Ashley reached for Ayeka's plump breasts and began to caress them, this just made Ayeka nip harder, at some point, she bit Ashley too hard and she drew some blood from the blond girl, who hissed in reaction.  
  
The blond girl wanted to be on top now, she quickly rolled over, so she was pinning Ayeka down. The first thing she went after were her robes, Ashley quickly undid Ayeka's clothes so it now formed a blanket for the two girls. Ashley continued her trail of kisses and licks down to her bra. Ayeka arched her back, moaning louder and louder with each touch of the blond girl's tounge and lips. Ashley then took this time to unhook Ayeka's bra and slide it off, she then placed it next to them.  
  
As soon as the bra was off, the blond girl stared at her plump breasts before beginning to suckle on one. Ashley played with Ayeka's hard nipple with her tounge while carressing the other with her hand.  
  
"That feels so good!" Ayeka moaned loudly, just before another wave of pleasure overcame her.  
  
The purple haired girl moaned even louder when the blond girl ran her tounge over the sides of Ayeka's ribs, moving slowly up, Ashley could feel each rib as she continued up, Ashley also felt Ayeka's body shaking pleasurably below her. The blond girl continued to caress Ayeka's breasts, she looked up to see the purple haired girl's eyes shut with pleasure, Ashley smiled a bit and continued to lick Ayeka's side.  
  
Once she figured she had gotten one side licked enough, she slowly ran her tounge over Ayeka's torso and began to do the sam-â¢"'?"@  
  
Ayeka then pinned Ashley down once again, Ayeka straddled her hips so she could get at the blond girl's shirt. She didn't bother sliding it over Ashley's head, she just ripped it it half and slid the girl's arms out of the sleeves, she then quickly took off Ashley's pants, which she too ripped in the process, she also tore off the blond girl's tank top that she had been using as a bra, then she slid off Ashley's panties.  
  
"Are you sure you want to do that?" Ashley asked her, she only recieved a mute nod, Ayeka was gone and replaced by someone who knew what they were doing.  
  
The purple haired girl attacked the blond girl, sucking and nipping at her bare flesh, slowly moving downward toward her pussy, Ashley moaned loudly, arching her back and squirming with absolutly pure pleasure. Ayeka continued down and rubbed her hand against Ashley's clitoris, causing the girl to moan even louder.  
  
Ashley then pinned Ayeka down, it was time to end this, she then found Ayeka's dripping vagina, Ashley easily slid her finger into her, the slowly moved it in and out of Ayeka, slowly picking up the pace and increasing the little friction.  
  
"Add more." Ayeka moaned.  
  
"Are you sure?"  
  
Ayeka nodded mutely once again.  
  
The blond girl slowly added a second finger, and began to slide it in and out, in and out, slowly making more friction, she felt Ayeka's vagina squeeze her fingers slightly, encouraging Ashley to add a third finger. After going at it for a while, the blond girl pulled her fingers out.  
  
"What's wrong?" Ayeka asked her.  
  
"I have a better idea." Ashley responded, spreading Ayeka's legs apart.  
  
The purple haired girl moaned even louder as Ashley replaced her fingers with her tounge, Ashley indulged in the sweet juices in Ayeka's vagina, she began to wiggle her tounge around in her, giving Ayeka even more pleasure. Ashley felt kind of left out, so she slid her own fingers into herself, it was the only way.  
  
Suddenly, with a loud moan, Ayeka climaxed, Ashley pulled her tounge out, she licked her lips, she came around the same time as Ayeka, she pulled her fingers out of herself and looked at the juices dripping off of them.  
  
A hand grabbed Ashley's hand that she had used to finger herself, Ayeka had taken hold of her hand, and licked her fingers clean. Then Ashley laid down next to Ayeka, a simple smile on both of their faces.  
  
"See what I mean by follow your instincts?" Ashley asked her, taking deep breaths every so often.  
  
Ayeka nodded, "Thank you for showing me."  
  
"It was no big deal."  
  
On that note, Ashley pulled up her panties, picked up her torn shirt and used that to cover herself up. She then picked up her tank top and pants.  
  
"Where are you going?" Ayeka questioned.  
  
"I'm taking you back to the cabin." Ashley responded, she then wrapped Ayeka up in her robes and carried her back to the cabin, and laid her on Jared's bunk.  
  
~*~  
  
Ashley was currently sitting by the lake again, in one of her hands, she held an empty vodka bottle, as she looked over the lake, there was a blank look in her eyes. She was wearing an old concert shirt for The Doors (AN: What? They're cool!) and a pair of ripped jeans.  
  
"Nice show, who are you gonna do next, me perhaps?" An all too familiar voice spoke.  
  
"Joey, shut up."  
  
"Why don't you, Zero?" Joey snapped. "So, who are you going to sleep with next?"  
  
"Go away." Ashley growled, standing up, and facing Joey.  
  
"It's a free world, I can go wherever the hell I want." Joey smirked, "So, another thing your good for besides killing, your good in bed."  
  
The blond girl dropped the empty bottle, her hands now formed fists at her sides.  
  
"Ooops, did I make you mad?" Joey said sarcastically.  
  
That was the last straw, Ashley lost her temper, and went straight for a punch to Joey's nose, which he easily blocked.  
  
"I don't think so." He calmly told her, "My turn." He then when and punched the blond girl straight in the jaw, knocking her back.  
  
Ashley turned her head the the side and spit out some blood, then stood in position to fight him.  
  
"Bring it on Zero." He taunted.  
  
At that moment, Ashley went to punch him with her right but, was really going to hit him with her left, Joey grabbed both of her wrists, and gave her a solid kick to the gut, this knocked the wind out of Ashley. Joey let go, and Ashley was on the ground trying to catch her breath, but she couldn't do it because Joey kept right on kicking her in the gut.  
  
He grabbed her by the neck and lifted her up, Ashley still didn't have her breath all together.  
  
"I could end this right here, right now, but, I'll get you when we fight." Joey smirked, then tossed her into the trunk of tree.  
  
The blond girl gently held her throat, panting for breath, she looked up to beat up Joey, but, he was gone.  
  
~*~  
  
Jared walked over to the cabin, his laptop under his arm, he had to plan for the next AC battle. When he got in there, he saw Ayeka lying there, he paniced. He quickly went over to her.  
  
"Ayeka! Ayeka! Are you alright? What happened?" Jared quickly said as he shook the princess from her sleep.  
  
Slowly, Ayeka woke up and smiled a bit at Jared, "I'm fine, but, you didn't see it?"  
  
"See what?" Jared asked her, he wanted to know what happened.  
  
"You didn't see Ashley and I?"  
  
"What'd she do to you? She didn't hurt you at all did she?" Jared was starting to really get mad at the blond girl.  
  
"No, she didn't hurt me." Ayeka paused for a moment on how to word what she was going to say, "She, showed me a few things, that's all."  
  
"What things?"  
  
"It's all for the good of us Jared, she wanted to help." Ayeka explained quickly.  
  
"She was drunk wasn't she?"  
  
"Yeah, bu-"  
  
"But nothing. I can't believe she even did that!" Jared yelled and slammed his fist into the wall.  
  
"Do you even know what she did?"  
  
"Knowing that girl, yes!! She got you naked and did some things I refuse to do at the moment! But you just had to go and do that!" Jared leaned against a wall and sank to the floor.  
  
"But, she just wanted to teach me." Ayeka told him.  
  
"Just go, I need some time to think." Jared snapped at her.  
  
Ayeka was taken aback by the sharp tone in his voice, "But, Jared-"  
  
"Didn't you hear me?! Go, leave!" Jared shouted.  
  
With that, Ayeka left as quickly as she could, leaving Jared there to think.  
  
"Damn her, damn me, damn Nonaka." Jared growled, he felt something going down his left cheek, he realised he was crying. "No, I can't cry, I'm a man, I'm not supposed to cry!" He gave up fighting, and let himself sob uncontrolably, Ayeka had hurt his feelings.  
  
~*~  
  
Ashley sat in the tree she had been in before the incidint, she saw Ayeka storming out of there once again. The blond girl tilted her head to the side when she saw Ayeka stop at the tree, and glared up at the blond girl.  
  
"NONAKA!! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!! WHY DON'T YOU DO US ALL A FAVOR AND LEAVE US ALL ALONE!!!" Ayeka shouted up to her, then turned around and stormed off to think.  
  
"How is it my fuckin' fault? Oh that's right, I seduced her, my clothes ripped themselves off of me." She growled unhappily.  
  
She sighed and slide down from tree, she decided to see how Jared was taking the news.  
  
As she entered the cabin, she was quickly punched in the nose, knocking her head back, once she had gotten herself together, her nose was bleeding and there, in front of her, stood a very mad Jared.  
  
The blond girl held her nose, "Hey, J-Man, what's wrong buddy?"  
  
"You." He said lowly.  
  
"What'd I do this time?"  
  
"YOU KNOW DAMN WELL WHAT YOU DID!" He yelled at her.  
  
"I just wanted to help." Ashley told him.  
  
"You were drunk too!" Jared snapped.  
  
"So?"  
  
"That's how you are when your drunk! You get drunk, and you sleep with someone! That's how it is every fucking time, Nonaka!" Jared shouted. "And this time you crossed the fucking line!  
  
"So what are you going to do?" Ashley asked him.  
  
"After the tournament, I don't ever want to see your sorry ass ever again!" Jared finished, then turned on heel, and walked away from her.  
  
Ashley felt a sudden emptiness in her once again, she let her nose bleed as she stumbled out the door. Everything, gone, just like that. She sighed and continued out. No one else was here, Mihoshi and Tenchi had gone into town for the day, Kyle and Washu were off somewhere doing God knows what, and Ayeka and Jared weren't speaking to her.  
  
"So, see what I told ya was true, Zero." Joey said.  
  
She just glared at him.  
  
"Here's my number, call me." Joey told her as she handed her a piece of paper with his phone number on it, which Ashley stuffed back into pocket, then Joey wandered off.  
  
Something inside Ashley clicked, it was then she realised that leaving and going back to the army was her only option. She sighed once more and continued wandering.  
  
~*~  
  
Later that night, Ayeka returned to the cabin to see Jared on his bunk typing rapidly on his laptop. She took a seat next to him, and she took a deep breath.  
  
"Jared?" She looked at him, hope filling her eyes.  
  
He looked up from his work, "Yeah?"  
  
There was a moment of silence, when suddenly, both of them said, "I'm sorry."  
  
The blond boy saved his work, and closed his laptop, then set it on the floor. He then wrapped his arms around Ayeka, "I shouldn't have gotten mad at you, it was just Nonaka's fault that she even did that to you."  
  
"I shouldn't have let her do that in the first place." Ayeka murmured.  
  
"It's alright, everything's going to be okay Ayeka." Jared murmured, gently rocking the princess back and forth in his arms. "Ayeka?"  
  
"Hm?"  
  
"Why do you want to make love with me?" Jared asked softly, still holding her tightly in his arms.  
  
'I haven't really thought about this one.' Ayeka thought to herself, looking straight ahead.  
  
"You know you can tell me and I won't get mad at you." Jared whispered to her.  
  
"Beacause I heard you did that with another girl before, and I thought you would break up with me if I didn't make love to you." Ayeka responded.  
  
"Oh Ayeka, I would never do that to you." Jared smiled a her, "Never in a million years."  
  
"Really?" Ayeka questioned, there was a stunned expression on her face.  
  
"Really really." Jared continued smiling, it then faded a bit, "Now, do you think your ready to make love?"  
  
Ayeka shook her head.  
  
"Alright then, I won't make you, I'll wait until your ready to." Jared said.  
  
The princess yawned loudly, "Let's go to sleep."  
  
Jared realised how tired he was as well, "Yeah, let's.  
  
With that, the happy couple fell asleep wrapped tightly in each other's arms.  
  
CHAPTER FIVE COMPLETE  
  
YAHOO!! I FINISHED!! So! Was it any good? Am I gonna get MSTed? Probably! But you know what, that's okay, know why? Cuz then I know someone's readin' my fics! ^^ Chapter six should be coming up soon, I've been workin' on it when I haven't been workin' on this, so, yeah! It's almost done. So, GO ME!! Yeah! This is your authoress saying, Sometimes I dream about being carried off by a giant squirrel, so, does that make me a nut?  
  
SHINIGAMI FOREVER!!  
  
Carol 'Minion' Maxwell 


	6. No Need For Ashley Nonaka

Okay dokay, I'm back with another chapter of Love and Hate. Yay! I know, you're probably thinking, Oh Shinigami! Spare us! Well, tough beans, I'm gonna write it anyway! So, BOO YA!!! I don't own anything except for a few original characters. It's cool, it's radical, it makes a squirrel blush, it's  
  
No Need for Ashley Nonaka  
  
The blond girl was currently inside the cabin, Ayeka and Jared hadn't still waken up yet, she glared at them for a little bit, she realised she couldn't get jealous over this. 'Just because no one wants to hold me so close to them.' She repeated to herself over and over again, until the feeling disappeared.  
  
Kyle also wandered into the room, Washu in tow, they were both in the bathrobes, obviously fresh from the shower, Ashley shook her head once more.  
  
"Hey Kyle, you'd better beware of those sexually active women, especially those mad scientists, their like rabbits." Ashley grumbled and walked out the door, with two pairs of glaring eyes watching her stroll out.  
  
"What's eating her?" Washu asked the kind of ticked off Kyle.  
  
"I don't know, but she better get over it before today's fight." Kyle said.  
  
"Who are you going up against?"  
  
"Joey Fitch, by himself."  
  
~*~  
  
Ashley began to think in her tree again, if their team lost today, then, the sooner she could leave where she's not wanted.  
  
"Ashley? Are you up there?" A perky female voice spoke.  
  
On that note, she jumped down and landed with cat like grace, she the looked at the very surprised Mihoshi.  
  
"I was so worried about you, I haven't seen you since yesterday." Mihoshi told her.  
  
The green eyed blond girl simply grunted in response.  
  
"What's wrong, you don't seem like yourself today." Mihoshi observed.  
  
"I am not wanted here." Was all Ashley explained to Mihoshi before turning on her heel, and marched off.  
  
"But I know Tenchi and I still want you here." The blue eyed girl whispered to the retreating form, not knowing if it reached her or not.  
  
"What's wrong with her?" Tenchi asked Mihoshi.  
  
"I don't know, she said something about not being wanted here." Mihoshi felt tears welling up in her eyes, but she blinked a few times and held them back.  
  
~*~  
  
Ashley set up her Armored Core for her last battle, she had to admit to herself, she was going to miss piloting Beta, she knew Jared would find someone else who was a better pilot, and litterate.  
  
"NOW FOR THE MOMENT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!! TEAM MIDDLE HELL VS. JOEY FITCH!! WHO WILL BE THE VICTOR?! WHO KNOWS!!" The announcer yelled.  
  
"Hey Ash." Kyle said over the radio, "Be careful."  
  
"Like you care!" She quickly snapped and cut off communications with him.  
  
Kyle was a bit shocked at that note, he cared, not as in boyfriend and girlfriend, as a best friend who was worried.  
  
Joey quickly went at Ashley, and slashed her AC, it caught fire, and exploded.  
  
"You! You killed her!" Kyle shouted at Joey, there were tears in his eyes as he attacked Joey, Jared was helping too.  
  
With that, Jared slashed Joey's AC, Joey escaped just before it exploded..  
  
"ANOTHER VICTORY FOR TEAM MIDDLE HELL!! BUT!! ONE OF THEIR TEAM MEMBERS DID NOT SURVIVE TO SEE THIS WIN!! WE'LL ALL REMEMBER ASHLEY NONAKA, SHE WAS A GREAT FIGHTER!!" The announcer yelled.  
  
~*~  
  
Kyle and Jared headed back to the cabin, they didn't notice Ashley's stuff was missing. Kyle's head was drooped, as well as Jared's.  
  
"I shouldn't have said those things to her." Jared said softly.  
  
"What'd you say?" Kyle asked.  
  
"I told her after she slept with Ayeka, that I didn't want to see her sorry ass ever again." Jared told him.  
  
"Well, I bet she's in heaven now, with her family, and I bet she's not mad at you J-man, I bet she's happy that we won for her." Kyle choked, he felt the tears well up in his eyes again, this time, he let them fall, "It's not fair, she was taken from us." Kyle shook with sobs.  
  
Jared managed to contain his sorrow, "I'll miss her too Kyle, I'll miss her too."  
  
~*~  
  
The military base in Germany was pretty basic, bunks, training grounds and such. Joey and Ashley entered there, they were going to register Ashley again.  
  
As they approached the place of registration, Joey stopped as well as Ashley.  
  
"Hey Ash?"  
  
She looked at him to show she was paying attention.  
  
"Do you want to go by Zero again?"  
  
She nodded mutely, and they entered.  
  
~*~  
  
Mihoshi had been crying with Kyle for quite some time, but, she then dried her eyes, sniffled a bit, then began to serch around for something of Ashley's.  
  
After some searching, she discovered the shirt Ashley had liked to wear, it was black and it read- Consiousness: that annoying time between naps.  
  
The blond haired girl smiled, she removed her usual pink sweater, and put on Ashley's shirt. She smiled, it fit her nicely, Mihoshi thought it wouldn't fit her too well because Ashley was a lot shorter then her.  
  
~*~  
  
Zero, formerly known as Ashley Nonaka once again, began to explore what was around the base. She passed a lot of soldiers. She noticed something else, there were people teaching some people around Zero's age, they were learning to read and write. A small smile crept across her face, it was going to be different this time, she could feel it.  
  
She looked at one of the teachers and blushed, from the looks of it, he wasn't that much older then her, about four years, or a bit more, it was a close guess. She quickly shook those thoughts of dating from her head, she was going to have to concentrate on why she was here anyway.  
  
"Hey, Zero!" Joey shouted, jogging to catch up to her, she faced him and crossed her arms.  
  
"Isn't this place better then last time?" Joey asked her, a large grin on his face.  
  
The blond girl nodded.  
  
"C'mon, I'll show you around!" Joey said, taking her hand and started to pull her along.  
  
"Hang on!" She yelled sternly.  
  
"What's wrong Zero?" Joey looked around at her, his eyebrows were raised.  
  
"I'm going to check out those reading and writing lessons." She told him.  
  
Joey shrugged, "Suit yourself." He turned on heel, and went to explore more of the camp.  
  
Zero approached the area and leaned against the nearby building, she carefully watched that one guy teach, he was very good, he had all their attention, and he was very cute. Zero felt herself grinning, she couldn't help herself. Something about him was different, she just felt it in her gut.  
  
The teacher looked up and noticed Zero watching, "Hey, if you want to join us, just grab a seat."  
  
She nodded and took a seat toward the back.  
  
He smiled at her, "Why don't you come up here and tell us your name before we continue."  
  
The blond girl stood up and quickly walked to the front of the room. "I'm Zero." Was all she simply said.  
  
"Zero!" A girl in the front smiled and waved, probably one of the few that survived in her regiment.  
  
"Alright Miss Zero, since Miss Haley there seems to know you, why don't take that empty seat next to her." The teacher told her, which Zero did.  
  
"Hey, you probably don't remember me, but, I was in your regiment back in the old days, I stood next to you when we would get in lines." Haley explained.  
  
Zero simply nodded. She looked over the new Haley, she had changed quite a bit since she had last seen her. She wasn't that bad looking either. She stood around five foot ten, taller then most the girls, she had long straight blond hair that reached the middle of her back and was tied back in a pony tail, some of the hair fell out around her face, kind of framing it. She was currently wearing a tight blue shirt and baggy boys jeans, the kind with the big back pockets.  
  
"Alright, continuing with the lessons." The teacher announced.  
  
~*~  
  
After the lessons, Haley and Zero began to explore some more of the camp.  
  
"Hey Zero, isn't our teacher the cutest?" Haley squealed.  
  
She nodded in response.  
  
"And I love his hair!" Haley continued.  
  
"Because it's like yours only brown and wavy?" Zero asked.  
  
"That too, and it looks so soft!" Haley added, "I wonder if he's single."  
  
"Probably, but, you never know." Zero responded.  
  
"Zero, I have a question for you."  
  
"Shoot."  
  
"Have you ever had a boyfriend?" Haley asked, "Have you ever dated anyone?"  
  
Zero shook her head.  
  
"Have you ever had a one night stand?" Haley kept going with this, she was on a role, "Have you ever done anything with anyone else?!"  
  
"I don't want to talk about this anymore, why don't you get to the point already!" Zero snapped.  
  
Haley smiled slightly, "Why don't you date our teacher?"  
  
The blond girl's eyes went wide, "Wha-wha-what?"  
  
"Go out with him, get all lovey dovey, and get a little smoochie woochie!" Haley said as she made kissy faces at Zero, who snorted.  
  
"I think this is such a good idea for me at the moment anyway." Zero told her softly.  
  
"Why?" Haley asked.  
  
"I'm still getting over leaving all my former friends back where I came from." The green eyed girl explained.  
  
"I see." Haley closed her dark blue eyes in thought, "Then, wait until your ready to date him, I'm not going to force you." Haley opened her eyes and smiled softly at the girl.  
  
"Thanks." Zero smiled slightly. "Listen, I'm going to go train some, I'll see you later okay?"  
  
"Okay, see ya later." Haley responed, and on that note, Zero turned on heel and walked away.  
  
~*~  
  
The rest of the week dragged by for the Team, without Ash to help them, and she was supposedly dead, they didn't really want to continue on with the tournament, they finished in first, as if that wasn't expected. Then, came the long ride back to the Masaki residence.  
  
"Hey Kyle, I've been thinking, we can't really do this by ourselves, we need to find someone else to help fight." Jared told his friend.  
  
"But, that would be replacing Ashley so fast." Kyle said softly.  
  
"Not to replace her, just to fill in until we're sure she's really gone."  
  
"What if she's still alive?" Kyle asked, staring out the car window, the AC's would be sent later.  
  
"Then, we'll take her back, what else do you think we'd do Kyle?"  
  
"Take her back." Kyle glanced over at Jared who was driving, Kyle was sitting in front next to Jared, he looked in the back to see that most the people were unconscious in the van.  
  
"Yeah, that's what we'll do, but, if she does come back, you better beg and grovel for her forgivness." Kyle went back to looking out the window.  
  
"I know, I know."  
  
~*~  
  
"C'mon! You have to have some halfway decent clothes in there!" Haley yelled searching through Zero's bag.  
  
"What in the world are you smoking?! What do you call what your throwing on the floor?!" Zero was getting ticked off by this search.  
  
"If you want to impress him, you've got to wear something other then baggy stuff!"  
  
Zero glared at her, "What's wrong with baggy stuff?"  
  
Haley sighed, "You've got a good looking body, can't you show it off once in a while? Would it kill you to act like a girl once in a while?"  
  
"Um, let's see, yes!"  
  
"I'm beginning to wonder about you Zero."  
  
"Oh, what are you wondering?" Zero put her hands in her pockets and leaned against a wall close by.  
  
"Maybe guys aren't for you, maybe girls." Haley stated.  
  
"Never know." Zero scratched under her chin, "But, I could like both can't I?"  
  
"Yeah, still, you act too much like a guy though."  
  
"What can I say, I'm proud of the weird way I am." Zero yawned a bit.  
  
"That's it!"  
  
Zero stared at her, "What's it?"  
  
"I'm taking you clothes shopping!" Haley grinned.  
  
"This won't end well." Zero groaned, "I hate shopping! It's the most annoying thing in the world!"  
  
"It's fun though!"  
  
"If your a normal girl."  
  
Haley sighed, "What do I have to do to get you to get at least one outfit that's like a girl's?"  
  
"Help me with my reading and writing." Zero said.  
  
"Anything else?" Haley asked  
  
"I'll tell you when I think of it."  
  
"Fine, whatever, let's just go before you change your mind." Haley stated, grabbed Zero by her hand, and proceeded to drag her off to the closest mall.  
  
~*~  
  
The ride over there was long, Haley wanted to listen to rap and pop stuff, and Zero kept changing it to a classic rock station, then Haley would turn it back to the first station. After a while, Zero threatened to jump out of the car if she didn't get to listen to classic rock, Haley gave in.  
  
"You know the day destroys the night, night divides the day, try to run, try to hide, break on through to the other side, break on through to the other side, break on through to the other side, yeah." Zero sang along to the radio, the song paused for a music break.  
  
"Must you sing?" Haley asked.  
  
Zero nodded as she resumed singing along, "We chased our pleasures here, dug up treasures there, but can you still recall the time we cried, break on through to the other side, break on through to the other side." There was another pause for the music break. "Everybody loves my baby, everybody loves my baby, she get high, she get high, she get high, she get high giiiiiiiiiiiiirl!" Yet another music pause. "I found an island in your arms, country in your eyes, arms are changes (AN: I don't know) eyes alive, break on through to the other side, break on through to the other side, break on through oh yeah! Made the scene week to week, day to day, hour to hour, days straight, teeth white, break on through to the other side, break on through to the other side, break on through, break on through, break on through, break on through."  
  
"Finally, it's over." Haley groaned.  
  
"What?! It was a good song! The Doors are a good band!" Zero argued, she started to nod her head along to Wheel in the Sky by Journey.  
  
"How can you listen to this stuff?" Haley asked, making a left hand turn.  
  
"It's good music, see, it all doesn't sound all the same, like today's music." Zero explained.  
  
"But this is from the sixties or seventies, it's way passed then, why should they still play this stuff?"  
  
"Because it's good music."  
  
"Whatever."  
  
~*~  
  
After about three hours of fighting, Zero had gotten yellow t-shirt that said: I knew I was a nut the day the squirrel started looking at me funny that fit like a normal shirt, and a pair of tight jeans that had silver beads on the sides.  
  
"Man, I'm going to feel so out of it when I wear this stuff." Zero groaned.  
  
"Look, I'm happy that you finally got something decent to wear." Haley said getting behind the wheel, Zero got shotgun.  
  
"Whatever."  
  
~*~  
  
The next day after class, she had found out what the teacher's first name was, although, it took a while of conversation because Zero was nervous. His name was Justin.  
  
"Justin?" Zero asked him a bit later.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"I was thinking." Zero started, then stopped herself, there was a moment of silence.  
  
"What were you thinking?" Justin questioned.  
  
"Maybe you'd like to go see a movie with me, maybe, if you don't want to it's okay." Zero sighed that she finally got that off her chest.  
  
"I'd like to go to the movies." He smiled at her.  
  
"Cool, maybe this Friday?" Zero's heart was racing with excitement already.  
  
"Sure, that works."  
  
"I'll see you then."  
  
~*~  
  
It was night when Zero returned to where she was sleeping, and then cheered a really big yes.  
  
Haley poked her head down from her bunk. "What're you so happy about?" She asked sleepily, obviously she had been taking a nap.  
  
"I got a date friday!" Zero grinned.  
  
"With who?" Haley's eyes were half closed, and she yawned excessivly loud.  
  
"Justin!"  
  
"Who?"  
  
"Our teacher!"  
  
"Oh. Okay." Haley then rolled over and went back to sleep.  
  
The curly haired girl kicked off her shoes and laid down in her bed, she was going to sleep, she couldn't see how she was going to do that because she was so excited and nervous at the same time.  
  
CHAPTER SIX COMPLETE  
  
WHOO HOO!!! Go me! I finally finished another chapter, see, I told you it wouldn't take to long from the last chapter, so, yeah. Please, all members, PLEASE review me, I'd LOVE to know what you think. Oh yeah, before I forget, today is one of my favorite drummer's birthdays. Today on July 7, Ringo Starr was born, he's just the coolest Beatle of 'em all. ^^ And he's one of the two that are still alive! Yeah. ^^() Oh well, 'till the next chapter this is your authoress saying: You laugh at me because I'm different, I laugh at you because your all the same.  
  
Shinigami Forever! Carol 'Minion' Maxwell 


	7. No Need for First Dates

AND I'M BACK with another chapter of Love and Hate. I know, it probably sucks so friggin' bad it's not even friggin' funny. Friggin'. I like that word. I don't own any friggin' thing in her except for the few friggin' alternative characters, friggin'. Yeah. Oh well, it's cool, it's fun, it nearly killed Raid, it's  
  
No Need for First Dates  
  
Justin busily worked on correcting some papers from his class. He leaned back in his seat and yawned a bit, it was around midnight, he had been grading since eight. Something hit him in the back of the head, he turned in his seat to face the person who threw the object in the first place.  
  
"Will you go to sleep already?" His friend asked, you could tell he was a tad bit annoyed.  
  
"I wanted to finish grading these." Justin explained.  
  
"Other people are trying to sleep." The friend responed.  
  
"Alright, I'll finish it tomorrow."  
  
He thought back in time, back to the old days, back to her. He sighed, he thought about how her hair was long and flowing, how it always seemed to smell like rasberries, which it also looked like, it was a deep red color. She loved rasberries, when they were in season, she would pick a bunch of them, she'd make all sorts of things with them, such as her famous jam, it was just as sweet as she was.  
  
'I'll get revenge, I swear it.' He promised her once again, he turned out the light, then he got up from his desk.  
  
Just going straight over to his bed and lying down, he looked up at the ceiling, he thought about the blond girl that he was going to see a movie with. He smiled a bit, then rolled over to go to sleep.  
  
~*~  
  
Kyle looked into Mihoshi's room, Ashley's futon (AN: Thanks to Raid, I now know what in all hells that thing is, did ya think I'd forget to thank ya? ^^) was empty, he sighed and ran his fingers through his now short hair, he had gotten it cut on the way back. He glanced back one more time, then headed over to the room he shared with Washu, he kind of just shuffled along depressingly, then he plopped down on his futon.  
  
Washu looked worridly at him, "You seem out of it, is this still about Ash?"  
  
He nodded, "Yeah, it is."  
  
"Don't worry, I bet she's alive, I barely knew her, but, she is tough." Washu said as she sat next to Kyle.  
  
"Yeah, but, it's just, things aren't really the same." Kyle explained.  
  
She laid down next to him and put her arm over him protectively, the pink haired girl ran her fingers through his hair, "Don't worry, it'll be okay, it'll be okay." She gently cooed.  
  
"If you say so." Kyle gave up and fell asleep, Washu followed.  
  
~*~  
  
"What do you think love is Zero?" Haley asked at lunch.  
  
"I think it's a deadly disease." Zero responed without hesitating, poking at her food, finding herself not to be very hungry at the moment anyway.  
  
"Why do you say that?"  
  
"Well, just you grow more and more attached to that person, and it finally gets to the point that you can't take another breath without them, it's like your not really all there when that person is gone, you just sort of slip away from the world until seeing the one you love once again. Either that or you'll go crazy. So, it's a deadly disease." Zero explained, taking a few miserable bites of food.  
  
"I think love is better then best friends, because, you can hold each other and smooch and live happily ever after." Haley smiled.  
  
Zero couldn't hep but laugh at the happily ever after thing, "Happily ever after? That has to be the worst joke ever!"  
  
"Why do you say that Zero?" Haley looked at her sadly, her feelings were slightly hurt.  
  
"There's no such thing! No one lives happily ever after! And if they do, they're a rare breed! I should know! My life hasn't been to happily ever after!" Zero stood up and slammed her fists on the table, "We all live, find someone, get hurt, get depressed, then find someone again, and start the whole fucking progress over again! If I were to date someone, I'd let them break up with me, I don't want to hurt anyone." (AN: Really, I don't want to break up with anyone, knowing me I'll probably hang around forever, the whole breaking up thing I prefer to leave alone.)  
  
Haley bit at her lip, "Zero! I know, you've had a hard life, mine wasn't cake either. I suggest you stop moping around and get over it!" Haley then stood up, tears were just beginning to fall down her cheeks, she turned on heel, and quickly walked away.  
  
"Haley wait!" Zero gave up and sat back down, "I'll never get over it." And she continued with her miserable meal.  
  
~*~  
  
Zero wasn't paying any attention in class, her mind was elsewhere, thinking about her friends, all of them, how she 'died' and left them, she sighed and continued to not pay any attention.  
  
"Zero, are you okay?" Justin asked.  
  
She nodded mutely.  
  
"Then why do I get the feeling your not?"  
  
The blond girl shrugged.  
  
"Alright, we'll talk after class if you like."  
  
"Hn." Was all Zero said to that.  
  
~*~  
  
"Now, what's on your mind?" Justin questioned, propping himself against the desk clostest to Zero.  
  
"It's nothing." She smiply told him.  
  
Justin didn't buy it, "It has to be something."  
  
"Really, I'm fine."  
  
He sighed, "Zero, you're easier to read then a Dr. Seuss book. Something is really bothering you, sometimes it helps to talk about things."  
  
"Just leaving them, that's all, I'll get over it eventually." Zero leaned against a wall.  
  
"Leaving who?"  
  
"Some so called friends back where I came from sort of."  
  
"What'd they do?"  
  
"Not they, it's what I did, I slept with one of my friend's girlfriend, he got mad, and so did the girlfriend, they sad they didn't want to see me ever again basically." Zero explained.  
  
"Those were your only friends there?"  
  
Zero shook her head, "There was Kyle, Mihoshi, Tenchi, Washu, Ryoko, and Sasami."  
  
"Did they want you to leave?"  
  
"Not that I know of."  
  
"You left because two of your friends were mad at you?" He gave her a rather curious look.  
  
"Yeah, maybe I'll go back."  
  
"You should." Justin thought for a minute, "Your friend Kyle, what's his last name?"  
  
"Jones, why?"  
  
He smiled at her, "So, is another one of your friend's named Jared Azerar?"  
  
The blond eyed girl raised an eyebrow at him, "Yeah, how'd you know?"  
  
"Oh, I have my ways, Ashley Nonaka."  
  
Her eyes widened, "How in all hells did you know my real name?"  
  
"Well, your team is the highest ranking in ACs." Justin thought for a minute, "Until me of course."  
  
"You're an AC pilot too?" Ashley was stunned beyond all reason at this point and time.  
  
"That's right, well, I quit, but, I'm rejoining." Justin explained, the smile still on his face.  
  
"Why'd you quit?"  
  
Justin paused a minute, then struck a pose by putting his hands into fists and putting them on his waist, "They couldn't keep the ladies off me, not my fault I'm so bishie."  
  
Ashley grinned at him, "Guess so."  
  
"So why did you come back here?"  
  
"I met up with a kid that was in my group growin up here." She explained, "Joey Fitch."  
  
"That guy's an ass."  
  
She laughed a bit, "You know him?"  
  
"Yeah, I was teaching him for a while, but, I didn't want to put up with him anymore, so I sent over to one of my friends, was never a problem again." Justin told her with a grin on his face.  
  
~*~  
  
Washu was up late searching for Ashley once again. Kyle walked over to her and sat next to her, he was holding a cup of hot tea for her.  
  
"Hey, how's it going?" Kyle asked.  
  
The pink-haired girl took the cup of tea and took a nice long sip of it, she set her cup down, "Nothing just yet, but, I'm getting there."  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, your hair looks nice that you got it cut." Washu said to him continuing her work.  
  
"Thanks."  
  
The two sat in silence for a while, the only sound was that of the beeping compter, then Washu broke it.  
  
"Have you ever slept with anyone?" Washu asked him as she worked.  
  
"Literally, yes, figuratively, well....um..." Kyle was stalling with this one, he figured Washu was already sexually experienced.  
  
"Well, what?"  
  
"No." He finally said.  
  
Washu stopped her work and smiled at him gently, she traced her finger along his jawline, down his neck, to the neck of his shirt, her touch sent a shiver down Kyle's spine.  
  
"Would you ever want to?" She smiled seductively up at him, continuing to stroke his neck.  
  
"Yes." He responded, staring deeply into her eyes.  
  
Kyle's lips edged slowly toward Washu's, she just put her hand on the back of his head and pulled him in for a deep kiss, which only got deeper. Washu rubbed her tounge against his lips, Kyle gradually gave in and opened his mouth, her tounge eagerly began to explore his mouth, rubbing her tounge against his.  
  
When the kiss finally broke, Washu laid Kyle on his back, and she then straddled his hips, Washu looked at him, there was a rather large grin on her face, Kyle just looked kind of worried.  
  
"What are you going to do now?" Kyle asked, propping himself on his elbows so he could be closer the mad scientist.  
  
"Remember that sample?" She reminded him slyly.  
  
He grinned a bit at her, "How are you going to get it?"  
  
"I'll show you then." Washu then met her lips up with his once again.  
  
A pleasured sigh came from Kyle as Washu's kisses moved down to his neck, he shivered a bit when he felt her tounge trace along his jawline and play with the bottom of his ear.  
  
Suddenly, a loud, rather annoying beeping noise came from Washu's computer, the couple broke apart rather quickly to see what it was, a transmission from somewhere in Germany, it had to be Ashley!  
  
"Hey Kyle, Washu." Ashley acknowledged as soon as she was on the screen.  
  
"You're alive!" Kyle shouted, shocked to his bone marrow.  
  
"Yeah, guess I am, I'm sorry I left you guys like that." She apoligized.  
  
"No need to apoligize," Kyle noticed some guy with long hair in behind Ashley, he was currently flipping through a magazine of some sort, "Ash, who's that guy?"  
  
"Oh, that's Justin, he was an AC pilot too." Ashley explained.  
  
"THE Justin?!" Kyle yelled.  
  
"Yeah, so?"  
  
"SO?! He was the best out there, he quit two years before Team Middle Hell was formed, you didn't know that did you?" Kyle asked.  
  
"I was on the street two years before we were formed dude." Ashley said rather dully.  
  
"I know, well, now you know that he was the best." Kyle smiled.  
  
"So, did I interrupt something?" Ashley asked, noticing Kyle was a bit red in the face.  
  
Kyle only blushed more, Washu answered this time, "We were about to make sweet love!" Kyle turned beet red at that.  
  
Ashley laughed, "Well, I got to get going, I got to go somewhere. I'll talk to you later. Oh yeah, Kyle?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Make sure you wear a condom man."  
  
"You little-" Kyle started, but, Ashley had hung up before Kyle had a chance to finish what he was about to say.  
  
"Well, I better get heading to bed." Washu told him and started to walk off to her room.  
  
"Bu-bu-but what about your sample?" Kyle asked.  
  
"I'll get it later, okay?" She smiled as Kyle nodded meakly, Washu then went off.  
  
Then Kyle finally noticed something that felt odd, his pants had started feeling unsually smaller, he figured he'd ignore it, and just go to sleep, and he headed off to bed.  
  
~*~  
  
Justin smiled at Ashley, "See, now don't you feel better?"  
  
She nodded, "Yeah, I do."  
  
"Now which movie would you like to see?" He asked.  
  
"Whatever you want to see, I don't know of any good movies."  
  
He thought for a minute, "Hm, how about this one." He said as he showed her the ad for it in the paper.  
  
"Sure." (AN: I can't think of any good movie, so, and I don't have the creativity in my brain to make up one. So, meh.)  
  
~*~  
  
After a movie, they headed back. They both stopped at the edge of a lake, the stars seemed very different today (AN: A sorta quote from a David Bowie song, it's cool, I like the tin can part ^^) to Ashley, usually they seemed kind of dim.  
  
Ashley looked up at him, 'What is it about him? What is it that makes me feel so at ease around him?' She blushed a bit when Justin looked back at her.  
  
"Did you have fun?" He asked, smiling.  
  
"Yeah, I did."  
  
"That's good."  
  
The silence hung over them, only the noise of the crickets could be heard. Justin then wrapped his arm around the blond girl's shoulders, he thought she was going to jump out of her skin, she remained a little tense.  
  
"I think I should be going to sleep." She told him softly.  
  
"Alright then, I'll see you tomorrow then." He smiled.  
  
"Okay, good night."  
  
"Good night."  
  
With that, they both headed their seperate ways.  
  
~*~  
  
"So, how did it go?" Haley asked immediately as soon as Ashley was in the bunk room.  
  
"It was good."  
  
"Just good? No smooch?" Haley's jaw was slack.  
  
"Nope, and I don't mind, it'll happen with time." She told her.  
  
"Whatever you say." Haley then rolled onto her bunk to go to sleep.  
  
"Hn."  
  
~*~  
  
Justin entered the bunk room, two of his friends were currently playing a card game of some sort.  
  
"So, how'd it go?" One of them questioned.  
  
"It went well." Justin responded pulling his hair back, then let it fall.  
  
"That's nice to hear."  
  
"Did you guys stay up just to ask me that?" Justin asked.  
  
"No, this game's been going on for a while." The other friend explained, almost in monotone. "Because a certain someone keeps cheating."  
  
"I'm not cheating!" The first one said defensively.  
  
"Then how did the ace fall out of your sleeve?"  
  
"It was a lucky ace, I just carry it for luck."  
  
"I'm going to sleep, can you guys try and not make too much noise." Justin told them as he headed over to his bunk.  
  
"Sure." Both his friends responded and kept on playing.  
  
CHAPTER SEVEN COMPLETE  
  
YES! AHA! Done! Whoo hoo! Okay, yeah. No lemon this time, like some people thought, but pretty damn close. Oh well. It was still fun anyway. So, yeah. Well, I hope to get started on chapter eight soon, so, I'd like to get some more reviews. Thanks to everyone who's been reading and reviewing. Yeah! This is so much fun. YAY! ANYONE WHO HASN'T REVIEWED ME, PLEASE REVIEW! Please and thank you. This is your authoress saying: Do the voices in my head bother you?  
  
Shinigami Forever! Carol 'Minion' Maxwell 


	8. No Need for Samples

Yup, another day, another squirrel, and yet another chapter of Love and Hate. Yes, I know you're all happy. So, before I begin, I don't own Tenchi Muyo, it belongs to their respective creators at Pioneer, thankyouverymuch.  
  
WARNING! THIS IS A LEMON! Yes, that's right, you heard me, another lemon for Love and Hate, you're all probably thinking, Oh Shinigami...Well, I'm doing this. So, you have to be 18 to read this, but, if your mature you can read this, yeah, I know how you 14 year olds can be, I was one last year, you know what's going on! And, if you consider yourself halfway decent, you'll spare yourself from reading this.  
  
But, it's all good. Yeah. It's funny, it's serious, it's all around good fun, it's  
  
No Need for Samples  
  
Ashley delivered another swift punch to the punching bag, she had been going at it for a while, she paused, slightly out of breath, she grabbed her water bottle and guzzled down about half of it. She wiped off her face with her shirt, then took a seat on the floor not to far away.  
  
"Not bad." A voice said to her, "practicing for the next time I kick your ass?"  
  
"Joey, one more comment like that, and I'll cut off your nuts." She threatened.  
  
He smirked, "As if you'd be able to even get that close."  
  
"Do you want to bet on it?" Her eyes narrowed at him and she pulled out her knife.  
  
"Bring it on." He sneered.  
  
"Hey Joey, Zero." Someone from behind Joey acknowledged, it was none other then Justin.  
  
"Hi." Zero responded, still keeping her knife handy.  
  
The blond boy's eyes widened considerably at Justin, then narrowed, he then faced Ashley, his eyes were darkening, "You're lucky your boyfriend came and saved you Zero, or else this time I would have killed you." With that, Joey turned on heel and started to leave.  
  
"We just went on one date you fokin' arse!" She shouted at the retreating Joey, she then took a seat against the wall. (AN: I've read Blue Monday too many times, Clover talks like that, she's cool. ^^)  
  
Justin took a seat next to her, smiling.  
  
"You didn't have to do whatever you did." She told him, taking another swig of water.  
  
"I didn't do anything, the guy's just afraid of me for one reason or another." He told her.  
  
"Hn." Then Ashley began to think, 'Could it be him? Nah, couldn't be.'  
  
~*~  
  
"HEY GUYS!! WAKE UP RIGHT NOW!!" Kyle shouted running through the Masaki household.  
  
Jared poked his head out of his and Ayeka's room, he looked sleepily at his friend, "What's up man?"  
  
"She's alive."  
  
"Wha?"  
  
"Ashley, she's alive!" Kyle grinned.  
  
"Where is she?" Mihoshi asked, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.  
  
"She's somewhere in Germany, apparently, she blocked the city she was in." Kyle said.  
  
"She doesn't know how to do that." Jared stated, "She was lucky to pilot Beta."  
  
"She's probably learning how to read and write there." Kyle responded, "After all, she is a fast learner."  
  
"Yeah."  
  
Mihoshi's face suddenly got serious, "That's it, I'm going to find Ashley, no matter what!"  
  
Jared looked at the blond very surprised, "But it's impossible!"  
  
"Nothing's impossible, nothing, and you remember that!" Mihoshi scolded him, she then turned on heel and went off to get dressed.  
  
~*~  
  
At lunch, the blond girl was sitting by herself because Haley said she wasn't too hungry. Ashley sighed and continued to munch down on her food.  
  
"Hey Zero." Ashley looked up to see Justin taking a seat across from her.  
  
"Hi."  
  
"How come you're sitting by yourself?"  
  
"Haley said she wasn't hungry, I still think she's kind of mad at me for that answer I gave her." Ashley explained, poking at the mystery meat.  
  
Justin's eyebrows shot up, "What'd she ask you?"  
  
"What I thought love is."  
  
"Well, what do you think it is?" He asked curiously.  
  
She sighed, "I don't want to repeat it."  
  
"Alright then, tell you what, you can tell me what you think it is when you want, okay?" He smiled gently at her.  
  
Ashley nodded, "Alright." Then she began to think, 'There's the nice feeling again! Dammit! What is it?!'  
  
~*~ (Carol: *pops up* Hello all! Sorry to interrupt the chapter for you all, just to let you know Craeyst wrote the below paragraph, cool huh?)  
  
"Advance, lunge, regress. Advance, lunge, regress."  
  
As his instructor had done when he'd been very young, he called out the steps of the drill. His swordsmanship had been his hallmark, his pride and his religion. These simple steps were prayers, penance for the time he'd spent sans his blade. Another nameless fencer called out to him from behind their mask. They saluted each other and drew up their epees. Justin dove into combat, letting the tip of his sword float from motion to motion. Each movement he made was as graceful as the last. As drills were his prayers, duels were his hymns. This was how he released his stress, how he vented the frustration of his failure. It made him think back to the old days, before he gave it all up, before she was killed. A flick of his wrist and his opponent was disarmed. Half-hearted bows were exchanged and the two parted. He sighed and sheathed his epee, then took a seat on one of the chairs. (Carol: Yeah, that's it.)  
  
"Ya still have it in ya, huh Justin?" One of his friends asked, the two had been watching him.  
  
"Guess that means you lost it, huh Raid?" Justin grinned.  
  
"No, besides, you know I'm still pretty good." Raid then leaned up against a nearby wall, crossing his arms over his chest.  
  
The other friend adjusted his extremely dark sunglasses, "Yes, but, you've never held a sword in your life."  
  
"Doesn't mean I can't be good at it Victor."  
  
"So, what are today's plans?" Victor asked, changing the subject.  
  
"Well, I was thinking we could head up to the mall." Justin said. "I have some things to discuss with someone, and I told them I'd meet them up there."  
  
"Sounds good."  
  
"Maybe we can bring Ashley along." Justin added.  
  
Victor shrugged, "If she wants to come along."  
  
~*~  
  
After some convincing, Ashley decided to tag along to the mall, the ultimate place of torture. Well, it wasn't going to be too terribly awful. While they were walking past various stores (AN: No American Eagle or Ambercrombie and Bitch stuff, it's dead.), Ashley spotted a pink blouse. It was silk, sleeveless and ruffled, all too similar to a friend's typical ensemble. She stopped to look at it and think of who'd wear it, letting her thoughts drift off to a certain well-tanned woman. For a moment there, she thought she saw her behind the glass. She shook her head.  
  
Justin, noticing there was one less in the group, turned around to see Ashley stopped at the window, a rather dazed look in her eyes.  
  
"Ya know, that's not a bad looking blouse." He said to her, he continued, "And I'm sure if you wore it, it'd look very nice on you."  
  
"Nah, pink's s'not my color anyway, but, I'm sure one of my friend's would look better in it though." She told him, a small smile on her face.  
  
"Well, what does your friend look like?" Justin asked.  
  
Ashley thought for a minute, thinking about every little detail of her, her bronze skin, her silky smooth, curly blonde hair, her bright smile that matched her beautiful blue eyes. She couldn't forget about her nice, round, breasts, they'd look nice in the blouse.  
  
"Beautiful." Was all the blonde girl murmured, loud enough to be heard by Justin though. Her eyes were glazed over with tears, but, she blinked them away. As she did so, one name went through her mind, Mihoshi.  
  
~*~  
  
They entered a cafe like store, it had books and various magazines on one side, and coffee stuff on the other side. Ashley looked around curiously, she spotted a guy with goggles that kept taking the free samples everytime the lady at the counter looked away or was helping another customer.  
  
The man looked over to where Justin, Victor, and Raid were talking. He grinned widely at them.  
  
"Hi!" He said to them.  
  
"Ah, there you are." Justin smiled, "You said you had something to tell me."  
  
He nodded, "Yeah, straight to the point today aren't you?"  
  
"Well, yeah." He shrugged, "Now, what do you know about who killed her?"  
  
"Well," He started, grabbing another piece of free sample, "I did find out that the person who did kill her is at the camp your teachin' at." With that he ate that piece.  
  
"Did you find out specifically who?" Justin asked.  
  
"No specifics just yet, I just found out that they had blonde hair, decent height, and is at that camp. That's all I got out of them." He adjusted the goggles on his head, and took another free sample.  
  
"How tall?" Justin gave Ashley a suspisous glance.  
  
"Somewhere between 5'5" and 6'2"." He then added, "Well, I hope I've been some help."  
  
"Thank you for helping me out with this." Justin smiled.  
  
The man grinned, and then said in his best Scottish accent, "It was no problem, what are friends for?"  
  
"Alright, well, we better get going, I have papers to grade."  
  
"Have fun!" He grinned.  
  
As they left, they heard the yelling of one of the employees, then they say the guy run past them getting chased by a lady employee, apparently she had caught him taking more then one free sample.  
"Snootch to the bootch!" He shouted as he dashed out the door.  
  
~*~  
  
The group returned back to the base, and went their seperate ways, Ashley seemed kind of down, but, she covered it up though so she wouldn't look anymore different then usual.  
  
As soon as she got back to her bunk, she layed down on it on her back, drifting off to thoughts of Mihoshi, her laugh, her looks, her everything. The more Ashley thought about her, the more that empty feeling grew in her, like someone was missing from her life, and she knew who too. But, she couldn't go back to them. To her. They were all probably still angry with her, and they'd probably always be angry with her.  
  
~*~  
  
Washu was left to the great task of finding Ashley once again, she was working alone in her lab, she was going to search for another hour, then she was going to go to sleep. She was wearing a big night shirt that had an underwater scene on it, and beneath the picutre, it read: Sleeping with the fishes.  
  
"This is beginning to become more and more difficult as I get along." She grumbled as she continued to type.  
  
"You know, you could always ask Jared or me for help." A voice said to her.  
  
"I know Kyle, one of you guys can work on it tomorrow." Washu responded, continuing to work.  
  
Kyle then took a seat next to her, wrapping his arm around her. "Yeah, I'll work on it tomorrow."  
  
"What brings you here anyway?" She asked him.  
  
"I thought you might be lonely?"  
  
She smiled at him, she then shut down her laptop and closed it, the pushed it aside. "There's other reasons too, I just know it." She grinned slyly up at him.  
  
He couldn't help but return the grin, "Maybe." He then continued, "Do you want to get that sample you've just been dying to get?"  
  
Washu traced her finger down Kyle's chest, stopping at the top of his pants, that sly smile still on her face, "Maybe." She then scooted closer to Kyle, "Would you let me?"  
  
"Gladly." (AN: Washu is in her adult form, not her 12 or 13 or something like that form, yeah.)  
  
She then locked her lips with his, slowly the kiss began to deepen, Washu then started to lick at Kyle's lips, which he opened up to her, allowing her tounge to explore his mouth, the pink haired girl then continued her kisses from his mouth, down to his neck, she licked along his neck, Kyle then tilted his head back, giving Washu greater access as she traced her tounge over his adams apple to his chin, then went back to his neck. Washu smiled a bit as she continued to work when she heard a soft pleasured moan escaped Kyle's lips.  
  
Their lips once again united, rubbing their tounges against each other, Washu then gently grabbed his hand and placed it on her one breast. Kyle got the idea and started caress her breast, Washu moaned softly into Kyle's mouth as his hand continued it's gentle motion. Kyle then moved his kisses down to her neck, much like Washu had done to him earlier, Washu then tilted her head back, Kyle ran his tounge across her neck, and continued to kiss, lick, and nip at her neck.  
  
"Kyle, yes, that's it." Washu moaned.  
  
The blond boy then proceeded to slip his hands underneath Washu's shirt, and began to massage her breasts (AN: She's not wearing a bra.), evicting soft moans from the pink haired woman. As Kyle continued to caress her, Washu's hand trailed down Kyle's body, down to the crotch of his pants, she then began to rub his arousal through his pants, getting a few moans from Kyle.  
  
"May I take off your shirt?" Kyle asked, recieving a nod, and Kyle then proceeded to remove her shirt.  
  
"What are you going to do now Mr. Jones?" Washu questioned him, grinning slyly.  
  
"This." He then began to suckle on one of her breasts, teasing her nipple with his tounge.  
  
Washu gasped pleasurably, arching her back, Kyle continued to suckle on her one breast while caressing the other. His mouth then moved down from her breast down her side where he continued to kiss and lick her soft, sweet body, sending sparks of pleasure all throughout Washu, causing her to moan a bit louder.  
  
"Kyle..." She moaned as he continued down.  
  
He paused for a minute, "Yeah?"  
  
"It's your turn." Washu grinned as she layed Kyle down on his back, and she then proceeded to straddle his hips.  
  
She then kissed his lips briefly, the moved her kisses back to his neck, licking him every so often. Washu then lifted up Kyle's shirt and moved her kisses down to his chest, teasing his nipple with her tounge, getting a pleasurable sigh from Kyle, she continued her kisses downward, getting several sighs, gasps and moans from Kyle. His hand then trailed down her body to her pantys, he then slid his hand into her underwear, and began to rub her sex, drawing a pleasured sigh from Washu as she continued to kiss and lick Kyle's body, letting his muscles guide her downward.  
  
The pink-haired woman then paused for a moment, stood, and removed her panties, tossing them aside, she then took her place back on Kyle. She grinned at him, "Ya know, you still have all your clothes on."  
  
"Yeah, so it seems. What are you going to do about it?" He responded in a sort of teasing voice.  
  
"Take 'em all off!" She still remained grinning at him as she slid his t-shirt over his head, and then tossed it aside.  
  
"Sounds like a plan."  
  
Washu then moved down to Kyle's pants and undid the button and zipper, much to Kyle's relief, and then slid off his pants and tossed them by his shirt. She then took off his underwear and threw them by the rest of the clothes.  
  
"So, what are we going to do now?" Washu asked grinning.  
  
"I wonder." He grinned back.  
  
Kyle slowly slid himself into her, being careful not to hurt her, Washu winced slightly at his entry, but quickly adjusted to his presence inside her. Kyle then began to thrust in and out of her, slowly at first, but he then picked up the pace, Washu then moaned loudly in pleasure, the increasing friction, the heat was building, and it kept on building, their pleasure kept on getting higher and higher and higher. Washu finally climaxed, Kyle wasn't to far behind. Washu then fell forward onto Kyle, both were short of breath and panting. The pink haired woman then rolled off of Kyle and layed next to him, he gathered her into his arms.  
  
"Kyle, you were wonderful." Washu told him, nuzzling into his chest.  
  
"As were you, as were you." He whispered back, kissing her forhead.  
  
They layed there for a while longer, then eventually, they both fell asleep in each other's arms.  
  
~*~  
  
Kyle groaned as he woke up the next morning to the annoying ticking of someone typing. He rubbed his eyes and looked around him, he was still in Washu's lab, he spotted her typing on her laptop, obviously deeply involved with whatever she was working on.  
  
He walked over to her quietly, but, somehow Washu knew he was there.  
  
She smiled, her eyes not leaving her work. "Morning sunshine."  
  
"Morning." He grumbled back, yawning a bit. "What are you doing?"  
  
"Finding Ashley, what else?" She explained. "You know, for all that effort last night. You sure let me down."  
  
Kyle just stood for a moment, mouth agape. He went totally numb. All that and... nothing? She was unsatisfied?  
  
"Wha... whaddaya mean?" He finally stammered.  
  
"Oh, rest assured, I attained a rather pleasing orgasm during last night's activities, it's just that I didn't come out of it with a semen sample from you. You forgot to pull out or find some other method of releasing your seed into a controlled enviroment." Washu sighed, then grinned maniacally. "We'll just have to do it all over again."  
  
Kyle groaned. This wasn't exactly what he'd had in mind.  
  
"Well, try and not sound too thrilled about it." She continued grinning as she said this, she noticed was too amused by this. She decided to tell him what she found out this morning. "I have some good news about her this morning though."  
  
"Oh?" Kyle perked up a bit.  
  
"Yes, apparently there is a camp in Berlin where they stuck everyone that was in the German Army as kids. Most likely Ashley should be there." Washu told him.  
  
"Then we got to tell the rest of the gang!" Kyle grinned and started to head toward the exit, but was stopped by Washu.  
  
"Before you leave Romeo, put some clothes on." Washu smiled up at him.  
  
~*~  
  
After quickly throwing on his underwear and pants, he proceeded to dash around the house waking up everyone, getting them to gather in one room.  
  
"What is the meaning of this Mr. Jones?" Ayeka demanded crankily, Jared nodded slowly, he was tired still, and looked ready to pass out at any minute.  
  
"Well, Washu found her."  
  
Mihoshi's drooping head shot up, "She found Ashley?" She asked eagerly.  
  
Washu nodded smiling, "I have the location and everything."  
  
"Oh thank you Washu!" Mihoshi cried as she hugged the scientist tightly.  
  
"Your welcome." Washu managed to wheeze out, Mihoshi was squeezing her much to tightly.  
  
~*~  
  
The blonde woman yawned, and rubbed her eyes. The plane flight from Okiyama to Berlin had been a long tiring one. She switched her suitcase to the other hand, then looked at the directions Washu had given her, they were a tad be confusing, but, she would find her way.  
  
It was time to begin walking, it was a bit of a windy day that day, it blew her hair around, it was once shiny, not it had a dull gleam to it, it was also a tad bit tangled from not combing it.  
  
'I'm coming Ashley. Please still be there.'  
  
CHAPTER EIGHT COMPLETE  
  
Wow, this one took longer then expected. Well, so, there going to be a sub- chapter after this, so, I better get working on it. This is your authoress saying: Don't judge a man by his socks.  
  
Shinigami Forever! Carol Maxwell 


	9. Mihoshi Finds Ashley: The Subchapter

Okay, here's the said promised sub-chapter. Hmm...now I want a sub. Oh well. Anyway, this leads up into chapter nine. So, yeah, it didn't quite fit into chapter eight, it was in the surprise I have for you at the end of this series, I won't tell you, you'll have to see for yourself. I don't own Tenchi Muyo, thankyouverymuch.  
  
Mihoshi Finds Ashley: The Subchapter  
  
She went toward the school the person in charge of this whole vicinity had told her to go. The school itself was rather nice, it was clean, compared to most schools. She continued to walk toward the office, and she quickly found it. She entered and saw a few secretaries busy at work, she approached one.  
  
"Excuse me." Mihoshi continued when the secretary looked at her. "I'm looking for Ashley Nonaka, could you please help me?"  
  
The secretary nodded silently, entered something in her computer, then grabbed something from the printer. She handed it to Mihoshi.  
  
Mihoshi looked at it carefully, it was Ashley's schedule. She smiled meekly at the secretary, "Thank you very much."  
  
"Your welcome." She smiled in return, and then went back to work.  
  
~*~  
  
The blonde woman wandered around the school, checking each class, so far no such luck. Finally, she reached Ashley's eigth period one, English. She entered the class room and say that it was empty, except for the teacher that was sitting at the front of the classroom, he was currently leaning back in his chair, tapping his grading pen on his desk.  
  
"Excuse me?" Mihoshi asked.  
  
He looked over at her, and quickly scanned her from head to toe, "May I help you?"  
  
She nodded, "Yes, I'm looking for Ashley Nonaka."  
  
The teacher smiled and nodded, "In fact, her and the rest of the class should be here soon. Who are you? Are you a new student here?"  
  
Mihoshi forgot she had to say her name too, "My name is Mihoshi Kurimitso." She responded, bowing her head slightly, "And who might you be?"  
  
"I'm Justin." He simply said, then remembering the name Mihoshi that Ashley had mentioned to him, "Ashley mentioned you, she seems to think you all are mad at her for one reason or another."  
  
"But we aren't."  
  
"And you came from who knows where just to tell her that?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"You're a good friend then." He smiled, he gave her facial expression another good look over, "What else?"  
  
"I love her." Mihoshi admitted. "And I've missed her terribly, please, help me."  
  
"Alright, go wait in my office, and, I'll keep her after class." Justin said.  
  
"Oh thank you!"  
  
SUBCHAPTER COMPLETE  
  
Yeah, it was short, but that's ok, that's the point, it's not supposed to be very long. So, go on to read chapter nine! This is your authoress saying: Never settle with words with what you can accomplish with a flamethrower.  
  
Shinigami Forever! Carol Maxwell 


	10. No Need for Confessions

Hey everyone! CHAPTER NINE OF LOVE AND HATE! Wow, this is really coming along, yeah. This is fun! Good news to all you Gold and Silver fans out there *looks at crowd with thousands of people cheering, a few whistling* Mister Craeyst C. Raygal has written a part in this chapter! Wowsers, I'm special! ^^ Well, I'm writing part of this too, so, I'll tell you when I start writing once again! *crowd cheers again* I KNOW you guys are gonna make this chapter your favorite :) 'Cuz it's my favorite :). So, before I began, Tenchi Muyo belongs to Pioneer, most of this chapter belongs to Craeyst. So, yeah! Isn't this cool? And now, without anymore delays, it's cool, it's awsome, it was mostly written by Craeyst *crowd cheers and whistles again* it's  
  
No Need For Confessions  
  
"...And so, using the image of Aslan being slain upon the stone tablet, Lewis actually was attempting to create an allegory to the death of Christ. This is further elaborated upon in the next chapter, in which Lucy and Susan tell the others Aslan is still alive."  
To hear him drone on about some old book, Ashley never would've guessed that she taking classes from the man they once called "Lovely Death". Indeed, his gentle demeanor and good humor caused her to believe he'd have a hard time swatting flies, let alone that he'd scored well over three hundred kills in combat.  
But there was no denying what she'd learned. This man was the myth. He was Justin Perinthal.  
"Zero, could you please explain to the class why Lewis believed that the death and rebirth of Aslan was so critical to the story, especially as an allegory to Christ?" He asked, just like any normal schoolteacher. She stood, somewhat embarrassed since she hadn't been paying much attention, and readied her answer.  
"Was it because he was a really devout Christian?" she asked hopefully, but he shook his head.  
"Actually, C.S. Lewis was an atheist until he met J.R.R. Tolkien and still harbored much atheistic thought." Justin smiled a strangely sad smile and turned his attention fully to the class. "You see, while there were many religious themes to the Narnia Chronicles, their prime purpose was to tell of new life. You see. The focus of each book is a voyage, a journey to a place where the characters become new people. When people go away from what has forced them to become one thing, they are then allowed to become what their hearts truly tell them to be. I believe that this was the lesson Lewis wanted people to learn."  
The bell rang just as he finished speaking. It seemed all his lessons revolved around that concept: starting over. He seemed to know that all of his students came from hardship and strife. For forty minutes a day, though, he was there not just to guide them through classic literature, but also to make life a little easier.  
She'd been on one date with him and spoke with him many times and never had really learned anything about him. He avoided speaking about himself at any length, shaking off personal questions with an easy laugh and a vague answer. In fact, she hadn't even learned much beyond his name. There was a lot she wanted to know, though. She'd give anything to find out what happened in his mind.  
"Zero, would you mind staying after class?" He said plainly, not even looking in her direction from his desk. "I've something to discuss with you."  
"Of course." She replied, pouting slightly. He'd stopped her just before she would've left the room. The tone he'd used, it was definitely one belonging to a teacher. She retreated from the door and returned to her desk, awaiting whichever lecture he had decided on today. He reserved speaking until the other students left the room.  
"Ashley, I'm quite sure you'll be displeased with me, but a friend of yours has contacted me."  
"Friend? I don't have any friends anymore." She stated. "I ran away from them, remember."  
"I do remember, which is why I decided to help this friend of yours." Justin replied shortly. "She has come a long way just to see you. To go from Okayama to Berlin is quite a journey."  
"You mean she's here?" Ashley shrieked, jumping out of her chair.  
"Yes, and waiting in my office I might add." Justin said coolly. "I have to admit, she's incredibly concerned about you. Poor dear is an absolute bundle of nerves." He paused, calmly rising from his seat and striding over to her. His warm, strong hand covered hers and he gazed into her eyes. "I won't force you to meet with her. If you truly do not want to, then I will tell her as such and that will be the end of it. But, please, do consider it."  
"Fine." Ashley agreed reluctantly. "If it'll get you off my case."  
He nodded and chuckled lightly, flashing her a tender smile as he exited the room. She sat waiting, wondering why he'd gone through all this trouble for just her. It wasn't as if she needed it. Though, she did appreciate the attention he paid her. And he was always courteous about it. But she didn't need it. She didn't need anyone. She hadn't needed anyone since her training with Haley and Joey. Why was he so insistent on attaching her to those people she'd left? She was Zero, an enigma of the battlefield, and a child of warfare. She had no use for friends, family, or love.  
The door opened and Justin ushered in a familiar well-tanned girl. She wore a distraught expression and her blonde curls were in disarray. Her blue eyes were reddened, obviously the result of near constant tears.  
"Miss Kuramitsu, would you prefer I left the two of you alone?" He asked Mihoshi gently. She shook her head and he pulled his chair out from behind his desk, motioning for her to take a seat. Then, he perched himself upon the corner of his desk and looked on intently, waiting for either of them to start.  
For a time, they simply sat. Mihoshi still sniffled from time to time. She slowly reached out to touch Ashley's cheek, her hand shaking nervously as her fingertips brushed Ashley's skin.  
"It's really you, isn't it?" Mihoshi asked, her voice cracking with emotion. Ashley nodded and smiled.  
"It's good to see you too, Mihoshi." She stated softly.  
"Oh Ashley!" Mihoshi cried out, throwing her arms around Ashley and sobbing uncontrollably, burying her face in Ashley's chest as she clutched at the girl's shirt. "Oh Ashley. God I've missed you. I've really, really missed you."  
"It's okay Mihoshi." Ashley spoke softly, patting the blonde's back. "It's okay, I've missed you too."  
"You didn't have to leave." Bawled Mihoshi. "Jared and Ayeka were just angry. They got over it, but no one got over not having you around."  
Ashley was taken aback. Jared and Ayeka forgave her? Everyone wanted her back? It seemed too good to be true. After what she did, how could they forgive her?  
"They really do forgive me?" She asked Mihoshi.  
"Mmhmm." Mihoshi nodded affirmatively. "That's one of the reasons I came, to tell you that."  
"Only one of the reasons?" Ashley's curiosity had been piqued. "What are the others?"  
"I really ought to leave you two alone." Justin interjected. They'd almost forgotten he was still sitting in the room. "There's obviously little cause for me to be here, and if Miss Kuramitsu's 'other reasons' are indeed the ones she told me, then I believe it would be improper for me to become involved in the conversation."  
"Do you really have to go?" Ashley pouted.  
"Don't worry, I'll just be outside in the hall." He replied. "If you need me, just come outside and ask."  
"All right."  
With that, the teacher bowed out of the room gracefully but quickly. The blonde had already told him the true reason for this visit. Even considering that Ashley had fled because she'd slept with her teammate's girlfriend and considering that this Mihoshi was incredibly beautiful, there are still some announcements that are hard to take. He reclined against the wall, folding his arms over his chest and shutting his eyes in wait for young Miss Nonaka's response. Internally, he laughed, thinking about how a new staff member would mistake him for being some sort of street punk if they saw him standing like this. There were detriments to dressing casually on the job.  
"You WHAT?!?!?!!?"  
That was undeniably the shriek of Ashley Nonaka, he mused to himself. As he'd thought before, there is some news that will always come as a bit of a shock. Love always comes as a welcome shock.  
  
"I love you."  
"What?"  
The young Raven stood silently, the phrase sinking in slowly but surely. He looked back at her, the woman he'd been charged to protect. She had it all, he privately confessed, grace, charm, wit, beauty, and talent. But, did that amount to love?  
"Come on, don't you love me too?" She asked playfully.  
"But, I don't know." He replied.  
"Of course you do." She stated, tossing her fuchsia hair in an incredibly alluring fashion. "You've loved me since you first laid eyes on me and you know it. You're just unsure if you want to show it."  
"How is it you know that?" His words were defensive and curt.  
"Oh, it's quite easy." She said, edging closer to him. "I've seen you in battle, and you dispatch foes with pure hatred. In order to harbor extreme hatred, you need to counter it with another extreme or else it will tear your soul to pieces."  
"And what is the other extreme, Vera?" He asked exasperatedly.  
"Simple Justin." She said musically. "Love, and your love is me."  
He stood straight for a moment, a smile creeping onto his face. After a silence that seemed like an eternity, he broke into easy laughter and wrapped his arms around her.  
"Well, I guess I'm not as professional as I'd hoped." He laughed. "I'm not supposed to get involved emotionally with clients."  
"Consider this the termination of our contract, then, and the beginning of our engagement." Vera stated softly, withdrawing an ornate golden ring from her jacket pocket. "I want you to be with me for the rest of my life, Justin."  
"Gladly, Vera. Gladly."  
  
"I granted your wish, Vera." Justin whispered, fingering the ring that he'd kept over so many years. It hung from a chain on his neck, usually tucked beneath his shirt. He wore it now as a reminder of his promise to Vera, and of his loss. With losing her, he lost everything. It was so unfair to her. She never even got to wear her wedding gown. But he'd been there with her, right to the bitter end.  
"C'est la vie. C'est l'amour. C'est la guerre. C'est la morte." He whispered as he tucked the ring back beneath the collar of his shirt.  
  
(Carol: Couldn't exactly put AN at this point and time, now could I? Anywho, this is where I take over the chapter, so yeah. ACK! *has rotten fruit and veggies thrown at me by angry Gold and Silver fans* Enjoy! *runs off stage dodging the fruit and veggies* YARGH!)  
  
Ashley stared blankly at Mihoshi for the longest time, millions of emotions just running through her head, not sure of what to say, not sure of what to do, or how to react at all. Could this be true? Could Mihoshi love her? Could Ashley love her back? Was this real? Was this all a dream?  
"Ashley, are you okay?" Mihoshi asked, she was getting rather worried when Ashley didn't say anything at all.  
The green-eyed girl nodded slowly, her mouth moving slightly, she was obviously trying to think of what to say. All of these emotions, all of these feelings for Mihoshi, was it love?  
"Are you sure?" Mihoshi seemed to get more worried, she began to think maybe she shouldn't have told her just yet.  
"I'm fine." Ashley managed to choke out, she felt tears welling up in her eyes, she blinked a few times, managing to blink them back.  
"Do you love me too?"  
She gathered herself to finally gather up the guts to say what she had in her mind. "Yes, I love you too Mihoshi." Ashley smiled, then she broke, her normally tough image shattered, now it was Ashley's turn to cry, her tears fell silently from her eyes and down her cheeks.  
Mihoshi then wrapped her arms around the shorter girl, pulling her close to her, Ashley then wrapped her around Mihoshi's waist, crying into her. Mihoshi then placed a gentle kiss on Ashley's forhead.  
  
After a good cry, the two girls headed out the door, Ashley's cheeks were slightly pink and puffy from crying, then they noticed Justin leaning up against the wall.  
"I hope it went well in there." Justin told them hopefully.  
Mihoshi smiled at him, "That it did." Ashley just nodded silently to show she agreed. Mihoshi then added, "Oh thank you Mr. Perinthal for telling me where she was." Mihoshi then hugged him tightly, then Ashley joined in the hug.  
'Heaven, I'm in heaven.' Justin mused in his head, hugging the two blondes back.  
  
Four years ago, it was planned, but, the mission wasn't such a success. Was it destiny? Or, was it on purpose? No one knows what went on in the mind of the killer.  
"Alright, now, what else needs to discussed?" The man asked the person.  
"Nothing." They responded in monotone.  
"I know you can handle this, you survived that army training at such a young age. But, Justin Perinthal is the best as well, just be careful." He told her.  
"I have no need to be." They said coldly.  
The man sighed, "Not this whole throwing your life away bit again."  
"Why shouldn't I?"  
"Because this is just a stage in your life, your only sixteen, like all teens this assassin stage is just a phase, you'll get over it." The man continued. "Now, what do you want to be paid?"  
"Nothing, why should I be paid to be the grim reaper?" They shot at him. "By the way, you'll have to hire some new bringer of death, this is my last job, I'm moving on after this stage."  
He smiled at them, "Glad to see you're ready for that change."  
They nodded, "Me too, me too."  
  
The person stood up from the bench and continued their run, their memory of that day were rather hazy, probably this person didn't want to remember that day four years ago. The last kill. The last mission. They had failed, but, maybe it was for the better. Just maybe. They had found him once again, he seemed okay, even after what he went through.  
  
CHAPTER NINE COMPLETE  
  
Well, this went well, yeah. Okay! Who was the person that was sent to kill Justin?! You don't know do ya? Huh? Do you feel lucky punk? Well? Do ya? ^^() Oh well, so, only one person has sort of an idea as to what in Shinigami's name is going on. But, nobody else does! So, for the rest of you, you'll have to wait for the next chapter of Love and Hate! Ha ha! The suspense is gonna kill you isn't it? Well, tough, if it does, can I have your dead presidents (money)? Please? I could always use more! ^^ This is your authoress saying: Many people own cats.....and go on to lead normal lives.  
  
~*~Carol "Flea" Maxwell~*~  
  
Yeah, I changed the Minion part to Flea, Flea just sounds cooler. :) LOVE AND PEACE! 


	11. No Need for Revenge

Hello everyone! Look! The suspense doesn't have to kill you anymore! Now you can find out what in Shinigami's name was going on in the last chapter! Isn't that cool? This kind of flips back and forth between past and present time so, to make you less confoosed, here's the symbals I'll be using:  
  
Past: (!)(!)(!)(!) Present: ~*~*~*~*~ Regular Scene Changes: ~*~  
  
Got it? Good.  
  
!!WARNING!! Holy crap! ANOTHER LEMON?! *grumbles somethin* How in Shinigami's name did I end up doing this?! YARGH!! Alright, so, now that you know, I can go back to my regularly scheduled life. You can't. You have to read this chapter.  
  
Before I begin, I don't own Tenchi Muyo, they belong to their respective creators at Pioneer AIC, thankyouverymuch. It's exciting, it's cool, it tells you what went on in the last chapter, it's  
  
No Need for Revenge  
  
(!)(!)(!)(!)  
  
The assassin set themselves up on the rooftop overlooking Justin's house. So far, all the assassin had been watching is some woman tend to her rasberry bushes. It was mid-July, and the summer heat was only beginning to pick up. Being on the black rooftop wasn't helping much either. The assassain wiped their forehead with a wet cloth and went back to watching, he'd have to come out sometime.  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
The person sat on the edge of a lake, this always seemed to relax them. Feeling the cool breeze off the lake. Watching the ripples warp their reflection in the mirror of the lake. Listening to nature as the day passed on. Smelling the sweet air that surrounded the lake.  
  
~*~  
  
Ashley walked around the camp, a Creedence Clearwater Revival song came to mind, 'Have You Ever Seen The Rain', "Someone told me long ago, there's a calm before the storm, I know, it's been coming for some time." She sang, and continued her walk.  
  
This is what she liked to do, just walk around, and think. To let her mind drift along with her thoughts, thinking about anything and everything. She hadn't seen Mihoshi all day, suprisingly. Ashley had thought the blonde woman would be sticking to her like glue. Also, Justin didn't show up for class today, there was a substitute instead, one of his friends. She simply shrugged, then continued on her way.  
  
~*~  
  
(AN: Hehe, this part's gonna shock you all. *points to light socket* This may help you cut down on electricity bills, you'll be like a little power plant.......................or something.)  
  
Mihoshi curled up next to him, she buried her head into his chest, he wrapped his arms around her, holding her even closer, their bare skin touching. She smiled contently.  
  
"You alright?" He asked.  
  
"Yes, I'm fine, just a little tired still Justin." She responded, still smiling.  
  
"How are we going to break this to Ashley?"  
  
"I can't help my feelings for you and her Justin, I love you both so much. I just hope she'll understand that." Mihoshi said, a tad bit worried.  
  
"I know she will, she'll be mad a little bit, but, she'll understand." Justin told her calmly.  
  
(AN: MUAHAHAHAHAHA*cough cough*HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!)  
  
(!)(!)(!)(!)  
  
Justin walked out of his house, and he spotted his fiance right away, he smiled as he watched her pick her rasberries. Finally, he went over to her, and wrapped his arms around her waist from behind. He took this time to breath in her sweet scent and kiss her soft neck.  
  
"Hey sweetie." Vera smiled, leaning slightly back into him.  
  
~*~  
  
The assassin watched the happy couple pick rasberries together. They felt sorry for what they were about to do, but, this was their last job, after this, they could move on, to whatever that would be. They set up their gun quickly and quietly.  
  
"It's time to finish this, once and for all." The person whispered to themself, taking aim with their gun, placing the cross hairs right on Justin's head. They placed their finger on the trigger, and readied to pull it. "Good bye Justin."  
  
Just as they were about to pull the trigger, a loud crash went off, the assassin jumped, accidently moving the weapon and pulling the trigger as well.  
  
"Oh no." The assassin groaned, seeing she had shot the wrong person. Her mouth hung open as she watched Justin cradle the dying woman in his arms. The wound was fatal, and the assassin knew that all too well.  
  
~*~  
  
Justin held Vera still close, her breaths were getting shorter.  
  
"Vera." Was all Justin managed to choke out, his eyes welling up with tears.  
  
"Justin, I'll be fine." She tried to reassure him, she put her best smile on for him, though that did not change the sad and worried expression on his face. "Stop acting like I'm dead already." She traced her fingers over his face gently. "Justin, I love you."  
  
"I love you too." His voice cracking.  
  
Her eyes closed, her breathing came to a slow halt, she was gone. Yet, Justin still held her close, not wanting to let her go.  
  
A glint from the corner of Justin's eye got his attention. He looked up and spotted the person on the roof putting away a gun. Now he had to take action. Justin quickly pulled out a gun from his holster that he had hidden beneath his shirt, just in time to see the person running out of the building, suitcase in hand.  
  
The person looked, and spotted the angry raven coming toward them, gun in hand. The assassin the took off, running down the street, with Justin close in tow.  
  
Taking a shot, Justin managed to get the assassin in the thigh, slowing them down slightly. He shot them again, this time close to their knee, not slowing them down much.  
  
The chasing continued, all the way down to the main street, when the assassin jumped onto a double-decker bus that was moving down the busy street, and was gone before Justin could catch up.  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
Ashley, Mihoshi, Haley, and Justin headed up to the lake for the day. Mihoshi had brought a picnic with her. Ashley brought a battery powered radio. Once they got there, the only people who refused to get undressed to their bathing suits were Justin and Ashley.  
  
"Oh, c'mon Ashley, it'll be fun!" Mihoshi pouted slightly, she was wearing a pink bikini, which Ashley thought she looked very good in.  
  
"No, because, I burn easily?" She shrugged.  
  
Mihoshi smiled a bit, "Take off your shirt at least, the bikini I got you looks very nice on you."  
  
She then mumbled something in turn.  
  
"If you don't, I won't tell you what I have in store for you later." Mihoshi told her in a teasing voice.  
  
"You know your gonna tell me anyway." Ashley responded, taking a seat on the sandy beach.  
  
"Can you take off your shirt for me?" Mihoshi then sniffed every so often, making puppy dog eyes at Ashley.  
  
"Alright, fine." Ashley groaned, finally slipping out of her shirt, tossing it toward the basket.  
  
The blue-eyed girl smiled, and wrapped her arms around Ashley, "Thank you." She then proceeded to kiss her on the cheek.  
  
Ashley blushed, "Yeah, but don't get used to it."  
  
Haley on the other hand, immediately stripped down to her bikini. She jumped into the water and dove under. She resurfaced grinning broadly. "The water's fine! C'mon in!"  
  
"Alright!" Mihoshi responded, stepping in to about waist deep. She turned back to Ashley, "Hey, join us will you?"  
  
"Nah, just not yet." Ashley shouted back, laying back in the sand, propping herself up on her elbows so she could watch Mihoshi.  
  
"Did you notice the scars on her one leg?" Justin asked, his eyes seemed to darken slightly.  
  
"Oh yeah, I have a fair share of gunshot wounds too." Ashley glanced at him, something was bothering him. "Why do those on her one leg seem to grab your attention?"  
  
He almost told her, but, thought better of it, "No reason."  
  
"No reason my ass." She snorted, "It's obviously bothering you."  
  
"Do you remember the person I met up with to talk at the mall?" He questioned.  
  
Ashley thought for a minute, "Oh yeah! The guy with the goggles that kept taking the free samples."  
  
"Yeah, well, he found out something for me from my past." Justin explained.  
  
"Ah, that explains it." She smiled a bit, "What was that all about? Who killed who?"  
  
Justin glanced over at her, then looked out over the lake, "She was the one."  
  
"Was?"  
  
"She was shot during an assassination attempt on me." He explained.  
  
"Girlfriend?"  
  
"Fiance." He corrected.  
  
"Oh." Ashley gave him a sad look, then went back to watching the other two swim around, "You must have really loved her."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Like they say, better to have loved and lost, then to have never loved at all. I should know, I knew what it was like not to be loved, to feel wanted, until I met Kyle, Jared, you, and Mihoshi." She then continued, "Love is a wonderful feeling, maybe because I didn't understand it and called it a disease, it isn't."  
  
Suddenly, Mihoshi and Haley grabbed Ashley's arms and legs, carried her over to the water, kicking and yelling profanities, then they tossed her in.  
  
~*~  
  
As the night approached, Haley returned to her bunk, she said she was going to do some training that morning. Mihoshi was still swimming around, Ashley was drying off in the setting sun, and Justin was listening to the radio.  
  
"This was fun." Justin calmly noted, a soft smile on his face.  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"I was just thinking, maybe you and Mihoshi would like to spend a few nights at my place to get away from here." Justin told her. "Kind of like a vacation I suppose."  
  
"I'd like to come along too, now, all we got to do is ask Mihoshi." Ashley responded.  
  
"I'd love to come too." She added, apparently Mihoshi was listening the whole time.  
  
"Alright then, let's get moving then." Justin smiled at them.  
  
With that, they all headed back to go get ready to go.  
  
~*~  
  
Mihoshi and Ashley followed the raven into his very nice house, it was definitely a lot better then the bunks. They set their stuff down in their rooms. It was already very late. Everyone got ready to go to sleep for the night, tomorrow they would start having fun tomorrow.  
  
As the night wore on, the more Ashley tossed and turned, she couldn't sleep. All these emotions that she wasn't used to were confusing her to no end. Was this really love with her and Mihoshi? Or was it just lust? She remembered a quote she had heard from someone, 'Lust is when you love what you see. Love is when you lust for what's inside.' She couldn't make heads or tails of her feelings for the tanned woman.  
  
Finally, she gave up trying to sleep, and wandered sleepily over to Justin's room, maybe he could help her, just maybe. She opened the door and slipped quietly in, hoping not to wake him up. When she looked at his bed, it was empty.  
  
'Where could he be?' She wondered, then shrugged.  
  
The blue-eyed woman was having trouble getting to sleep as well, she wandered over to the room Ashley was sleeping in. She entered, and gasped when she saw that her bed was empty. Her mind began to race with different thoughts. What if she left again? What if she never found Ashley again? Before panicing too much, Mihoshi went to check and see if she was talking to Justin.  
  
'Please be there.' Mihoshi silently prayed.  
  
She entered the room, spotting the blond girl sitting on the edge of Justin's bed. Mihoshi felt her heart leap with excitement, then quickly went to Ashley, wrapping her arms around her tightly, she was crying.  
  
"What's the matter?" Ashley asked sleepily.  
  
"I thought you left again!" Mihoshi cried, "I thought I'd lost you again!"  
  
"It's okay, I'm here for you, and I'm not going anywhere." Ashley pulled Mihoshi into her arms.  
  
Mihoshi wiped the tears from her eyes, Ashley smiled a bit, the kissed her on her forhead. Then, Mihoshi kissed the other girl's cheek. The girl smiled then, kissed her on the lips. The kiss deepened and grew more passionate as each second passed by. Mihoshi moved her lips down to Ashley's neck, nipping and licking at it, getting a soft moan from her.  
  
Their lips reunited once again, Ashley then went down Mihoshi's neck, slowly moving down her body, unbuttoning the top of her pajamas. Once she had it removed, she took off her bra and began to suckle on her breast. Mihoshi moaned softly, arching her back.  
  
The two broke apart when Justin opened the door to his room, Mihoshi quickly covered her breasts with her pajama shirt.  
  
"I'm sorry about this Justin." Ashley quickly apoligized, her head drooping a bit.  
  
"What's there to be sorry about?" He asked.  
  
"Urm..." This one was stumping Ashley.  
  
"In fact I was planning on joining you two." He grinned.  
  
"What were you doing out of bed anyway?" Ashley questioned, turning beet red at his comment.  
  
"Wandering about wondering which of you would be awake. I'm so terribly aroused." He simply answered, the grin remaining.  
  
Ashley crossed her arms, still blushing, Mihoshi grinned back at him. The shorter blonde girl noticed this and snorted.  
  
"I should've known." She snarled, semi glaring at the two.  
  
"Known what?" Mihoshi raised an eyebrow.  
  
"That there was something between you two!" She growled in frustration, quickly leaving the room to go to the one she was staying in.  
  
She shut the door, and sat up against it. She felt two hot, wet trails of tears start to drip down her face. 'So this is love? If it is, then why does it hurt so much?' She continued to cry silently, ignoring Mihoshi and Justin at the door.  
  
~*~  
  
The next morning Mihoshi was going to try and talk to Ashley, hopefully she would understand when she explained to her about her feelings for Justin.  
  
She slowly opened the door and peered inside, when she looked around, there was no one. Ashley had left sometime during the night, the open window proved it well, it was wide open, the curtains blowing wildly in the breeze. All her stuff was there, she was probably planning on coming back, but when was the question.  
  
The blonde spotted a note on the pillow, she picked it up, it was in Ashley's untidy scrawl. It read: 'Mihoshi, I do not want to get between you and Justin. I'll be back for my stuff. Good-bye. Lovingly, Ashley'  
  
Mihoshi started to cry, quietly at first, but, it grew to loud sobs. Justin came rushing over to see what was wrong with her.  
  
"What happened?" Justin asked her. Mihoshi handed him the note, which he quickly read over.  
  
"We still have a chance to get her to stay." Justin told Mihoshi calmly, wrapping his arms around her, pulling her into a comforting embrace.  
  
~*~  
  
Ashley quickly and quietly climbed into the open window. Her appearance had changed a little since she left, she had gotten her hair cut to about an inch or two long. She looked over to her bed and spotted Mihoshi and Justin sleeping, both were nude, to that Ashley snorted.  
  
She quickly gathered up the few clothes she had brought with her. She then threw them down to the ground first, then she was about to climb out, but, a pair of arms stopped her.  
  
"Just where do you think you're going?" A witty voice purred slyly. "It'd be rather rude of you to run out on both your lovers."  
  
"Yeah." Chimed in a giggling tinkling of a girl's voice. "You'd force us to look all over for you all over again."  
  
Ashley turned. Upon her left wrist was one of Justin's hands. Upon her right, Mihoshi's. They grinned at her and began slowly pulling her to them, drawing her into the bed they shared.  
  
"What do you think you're doing?" She demanded, trying to wrench her wrists free. "I'm going so that you two can be together, can't you see that?"  
  
Mihoshi and Justin smiled at each other, then leaned close to Ashley, each nuzzling one of her cheeks.  
  
"But we can't love each other if we can't love you." Mihoshi spoke softly, placing delectable little kisses along Ashley's jaw.  
  
"Indeed, my dear." Justin added, hushed and low. "You brought us together. Our love stems from a shared love of you. You bind us to each other."  
  
The short-haired blonde girl was about to object when she was silenced by Justin's lips, it took a second before she responded. She felt the sparks of electricity to course it's way through her body. Gradually, she was laid on her back, Justin kissing her lips gently, while Mihoshi busily began to undress the shorter girl.  
  
"What are you planning on doing with me?" Ashley managed to say between the kisses.  
  
Justin smiled, "You'll see."  
  
With that, Justin's lips moved down to her neck, kissing and licking her. At this point, Mihoshi had gotten Ashley's shoes, pants, and underwear off, Justin slid his hands under her shirt, gently carressing her breasts, his touch sending the short blonde girl even higher. Her eyes were closed in obvious pleasure, her back arched as Justin's hands continued to touch her. Each fingertip sending sparks throughout her entire body.  
  
Mihoshi went to work as well, gently kissing Ashley's lips, which was eagerly returned. Ashley slipped her tounge into Mihoshi's mouth, exploring her mouth, running her tounge over the blue-eyed girl's teeth.  
  
The kiss parted for a brief moment to remove Ashley's t-shirt and sports bra. Mihoshi went back to kissing her lips, teasing her every so often. Ashley let out a gasp when Justin's mouth closed around her nipple and began to suckly on her breast, Mihoshi was to far behind in doing the same. Ashley couldn't hold back her moans of pleasure, and she let out a soft moan, her back arched again.  
  
Ashley and Justin's lips reunited once again in a deep passionate kiss. Mihoshi continued her way down Ashley's body, kissing and licking at her skin, sending a tingle down her spine that run up and down a few times. It wasn't long before she reached Ashley's sex, she began to rub her, causing Ashley to moan loudly into Justin's mouth.  
  
The short haired girl gasped even louder when Mihoshi slid a finger her into, creating that small bit a friction as her finger moved back and forth in her. Justin once again trailed his lips down from Ashley's lips, down to her breasts, which he began to suckle once again. With that, Mihoshi added a second finger increasing the pleasure. Ashley moaned loudly lost in a sea of pleasure.  
  
Mihoshi and Justin exchanged glances, and nodded. Mihoshi slid her fingers out of Ashley, Mihoshi moved up toward Ashley's head, and began to kiss her passionately, Ashley eagerly returning it. Ashley looked briefly at Justin as he laid down on top of her, his hips going between her legs, their skin tingled where they met. Justin looked at Ashley kind of asking her if he should or not, she simply nodded. With that Justin gently thrust into her Ashley moaned loundly, then Mihoshi kissed the girl's lips, muffling her moans. Justin began to pick up the pace, thrusting faster and faster. The pleasure increasing, then, Justin finally climaxed, his muscles relaxed everywhere, he was breathing heavily, as was Ashley and Mihoshi.  
  
Justin pulled out of her and laid down next to her opposite as Mihoshi. Ashley fell into an easy sleep between the ones she loved.  
  
~*~  
  
The ringing phone woke up Justin the next morning, he sat up groggily, shuffled over to the phone and answered it.  
  
"Hello?" He grumbled still half asleep.  
  
"Sorry to wake you up, but, I found out something this morning about her death." The person answered, it was the guy with the goggles that kept stealing the free samples at the coffee shop.  
  
"What'd you find out?" Justin paid close attention to the perosn's answer.  
  
"There wasn't just one assassin, there was two assassins involved in this. Whoever fired it, was still on the roof and got away while you were chasing after whoever was, in short, a decoy." He explained.  
  
"So, I'll have to find the decoy to find the killer." Justin thought out loud.  
  
"Sounds like that'd work. Well, talk to you later, go back to sleep." With that, the guy hung up, as well as Justin did.  
  
Justin stood there for a minute thinking, but was shaken out of his thoughts when a pair of arms wrapped around his waist and held him close to their warm body.  
  
"Mihoshi, you startled me." He said calmly.  
  
"I'm sorry, but you looked like you needed a hug."  
  
"Yeah." He trailed back to his thoughts, 'I'm getting close Vera, I just know it.'  
  
CHAPTER 10 COMPLETE  
  
ARGH! Yes! I finished, whoo hoo! *cheers* Holy crap, 10 chapters long, that's a lot! Well, technically, 11 if you include the sub-chapter, but, it ok though. So I should have chapter 11 started soon, so, yeah, this should be good. This is good news, the Godfather likes good news. This your authoress saying: You can't shut down the real Napster!  
  
Shinigami Forever! Carol Maxwell 


	12. No Need for Surprises

Hello all once again, I'm here with yet another chapter of Love and Hate. Consindering how bad the last two lemons were, there will no more lemons in this series. I may write them later on, long after the series is finished. This may be a nice break for all of you who didn't quite enjoy chapters 8 and 10. Anyways, this is chapter 11, this one is going to be a trip with all the chaos and all, so, I hope you all will enjoy it. Once again, I do not own Tenchi Muyo, it belongs to it's respective creators. Thank you. Now, on with it. It's shocking, it's got blood, it's got more chaos then the Romans fighting the blue people, it's  
  
No Need for Surprises  
  
Ashley still couldn't believe what had happened that night, she woke up and didn't remember all too well. She had shrugged it off as a dream when she got up to an empty bed, but she noticed that she was sleeping naked, she never did that, never. She looked around the room, nothing looked too familiar, then once she thought about it, it really did happen, last night wasn't a dream. She felt a sick lurch in her gut. Ashley closed her eyes, and it passed.  
  
Something smelled good coming from the kitchen, someone was making breakfast. She quickly found her clothes from yesterday on the floor, she quickly put them on, she didn't mind that they were wrinkled.  
  
When she reached the kitchen, she saw that there was scrambled eggs with toast and juice sitting at the table. She looked around and didn't see Mihoshi or Justin around. She decided to leave the food there and find them first.  
  
After a while of searching around, she spotted them sitting on the porch. She went out to see what they were talking about.  
  
"Morning." She said to them, sitting down between them.  
  
"Hey sleepy head." Mihoshi said brightly, she seemed overly excited about something.  
  
The short-haired blond looked at Justin, he looked nervous, or just kind of like he did something wrong or something.  
  
"What's going on?" Ashley finally asked.  
  
"Well, you see...." Justin looked as if he was trying to figure out how to word something.  
  
Mihoshi decided she was going to break the news to her, "I might be a daddy." She grinned brightly at Ashley.  
  
Ashley's jaw dropped, "Wha-wha-what? How?"  
  
"Well, you see, I didn't exactly pull out when I climaxed." Justin murmured just loud for Ashley to hear him.  
  
She glanced at both of them, "Bu-bu-but there might be a chance I might have not gotten pregnant."  
  
"True, but, there's still that chance." Mihoshi seemed to be too happy about this whole thing.  
  
"Oh God." Ashley moaned, she felt tears already staining her eyes, 'Why me?!' She cried in her mind, 'Why does this have to happen to me?!'  
  
The girl quickly blinked back her tears, she couldn't cry about this, she couldn't, no matter what. She stood up and walked into the house, she knew Mihoshi and Justin were following her to make sure she didn't leave again, but, in the shock Ashley was in, she couldn't leave. Especially now that she might be with child.  
  
~*~  
  
Mihoshi and Justin sat at the kitchen table, Ashley had locked herself in a room for a while. They both sat in silence, Mihoshi was still smiling as happily as ever, as for Justin, he still looked kind of worried.  
  
"Do you think it'll be a boy or a girl?" Mihoshi grinned brightly.  
  
"Well," Justin began, folding his hands on the table. "Ashley does have a point, she might not be pregnant."  
  
The blue-eyed girl's happy mood did not change in the least, "Still, if she is, do you think it'd be a boy or a girl?"  
  
"Well, what do you think?" Justin asked her.  
  
She thought for a second or two, "I think it'd be a girl."  
  
"But, I guess we'd have to just wait and see what happens." Justin smiled sadly at her.  
  
~*~  
  
The phone started ringing, Kyle rolled over and put a pillow over his head, hoping it would kind of go away. Which it stoped, but then it started up again. He finally answered it.  
  
"Hello?" He said in kind of sleepy voice came.  
  
"Kyle?"  
  
"Yes." He answered sleepily, rubbing his eyes. "Who is this calling at this ungodly hour?"  
  
"It's Ashley." She responded.  
  
"Oh, hey Ash, what's up?" Kyle yawned slightly into the mouthpiece of the phone.  
  
"Alot, you wouldn't believe it."  
  
"Such as?"  
  
"That I might be pregnant."  
  
There was a long pause from Kyle's end, finally he said, "Who did that to you?"  
  
"Justin." She simply answered.  
  
"He didn't force you did he?" Kyle sounded worried for his teammate.  
  
"No, it was all willingly, Mihoshi was involved as well." She explained to him.  
  
"I hope it all goes well for you." Kyle yawned again.  
  
"Yeah." She thought for a minute, "How's everything there?"  
  
"It's okay here, but, we miss you Ashley. Everyone does." Kyle told her.  
  
He paused for a moment, letting what Ashley had told him sink in. Not at all surprisingly, it wasn't sinking in at all. Somehow, he was putting two and two together and getting eleventy-billion. There was something about this turn of events that just did not make sense.  
  
"So, Kyle, what's up with Ashley?" Jared asked, noting his teammate's worried expression.  
  
"You know Justin Perinthal, right?" Kyle stated.  
  
"Holy Crap! Lovely Death himself?!?!" Jared shrieked, totally shocked. "That's a name you don't use unless someone's going to die. I mean, crap, Perinthal has over six-hundred kills to his credit. He's a frickin' Raven man. A real fucking Raven!"  
  
"Well, apparently now he's the father of Ashley's child." Kyle said nervously.  
  
"Ashley... Child... Perinthal?" Jared's mind had ceased functioning.  
  
"My reaction exactly." Kyle replied weakly. "I mean, him, Victor Dementile, and Raid Alpha were the men you hired not when you needed a man killed. They were the men you called if you needed genocide."  
  
"It's frightening to say the least." Jared finally said, shaking his head. "That man's hands are permanently red. As crimson as his score."  
  
"They say he's remorseless. They even say the man will gladly kill with his bare hands. That he likes to see his victim's eyes as they die."  
  
"He's a predator for sure." Kyle agreed. "And that he is involved with Ashley and Mihoshi is unsettling. I think we have to go there and check this out."  
  
"Check what out?" Ryoko chimed in, floating down from the ceiling.  
  
"Jeez, knock or something." Jared said. "We have to go to Germany."  
  
"Why might that be?" Washu asked poking her head out of her lab.  
  
"Where'd you come from?" Hollered Kyle.  
  
"So, why is it we're going to Germany?" Ayeka asked mildly, walking in from the living room.  
  
"Can't I finish before someone else gets here?" Jared shouted.  
  
"What'll I need to pack?" Sasami chimed in merrily.  
  
"Damn IT! Doesn't ANYONE realize that Mihoshi and Ashley are in serious danger because they're living with a man who has killed over six- hundred people in cold-blood?!!" Kyle shouted at the top of his lungs.  
  
"WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY SO?" The girls all asked at once.  
  
Kyle sighed heavily, he then went back to Ashley, "Don't worry Ash, we'll all be there soon, so, just hang on."  
  
"But-" Before Ashley could finish, Kyle hung up the phone to get everything ready to go.  
  
~*~  
  
Ashley looked dully at the phone, listening to the dial tone, it was a bit before she actually hung up. She sighed, "Mine as well find something to do."  
  
She started to head out the door, when she was stopped.  
  
"Where are you going?" A perky voice musically sounded.  
  
"Out." She simply answered.  
  
Mihoshi smiled rather brightly, "Why don't you get tested to see if you really are pregnant."  
  
The short haired blonde gave her a rather annoyed look, "Look, I'm probably not even pregnant."  
  
The blue-eyed woman kind of pouted sadly at her, whimpering slightly.  
  
"Don't look at me like that." Ashley said kind of pleading.  
  
Adding a sniff or two, and watery eyes, Mihoshi was not giving up that easily.  
  
"Alright fine! I'll go, but I won't like it." She mumbled.  
  
"OH THANK YOU!!" Mihoshi cheered, hugging Ashley tightly.  
  
~*~  
  
Ashley's throat tightened, her eyes welled with tears, but she held them back. She couldn't believe it, all of these emotions were running through her mind at the same time, but, these feelings of anger and sorrow combined brought back a memory that Ashley had buried in the depths of her mind, maybe it was buried even deeper when she met Justin, like it was something bad.  
  
"Congratulations to you and the father!" The nurse who had given her the test smiled cheerily at her.  
  
She managed a grunt.  
  
"Don't worry deary, the first one's the hardest, but, you'll come to find that a child is the most wonderful thing anyone can ask for." She told her.  
  
"You had a kid too?" Ashley asked her rather curiously.  
  
"Just one? Heaven's no! I have four!" She smiled at her.  
  
At this note, Ashley gave her an odd look.  
  
"Yes, they are so nice to have around, and they just are so wonderful, it's somthing you'll understand soon enough deary. Hope the father is happy for you." The nurse started to wave good-bye to her.  
  
"I hope he is." Ashley said kind of drooping, but, waved good-bye to the overly joyed nurse and started to walk off.  
  
Then it hit her finally as to what the memory was, and she had good reason to forget it.  
  
~*Flashback*~  
  
The war was still going on, and Germany had decided to invade England, this also marked Ashley's first battle at age ten. Also her first encounter with him too. Him, being Justin Perinthal.  
  
The small girl charged around the battle field, shooting people, watching them fall in agony, before they finally died, she stayed alert of the falling bombs that exploded too, sending the English soliders flying through the air. But, she noticed a group of three not to far away, killing a bunch of people, like it was the easiest thing in the world. She watched on in particular, he didn't appear much older then her, about four years older, the others looked around five years older. But, for boys at their age, they were killing like they had done this all their lives.  
  
She felt a sharp pain in her shoulder, she grasped it pain as she fell back to the ground, she looked up to see the guy with long brown hair holding the smoking weapon, his eyes looked almost if they weren't his own, like he was possessed by some God or demon that was helping him kill. But, he then picked up the small girl, then signalling to the others with a twitch of their head, the darkest haired one followed immediately, while the other finished off a kid that was the same age as Ashley, and then followed.  
  
~*~  
  
They arrived at a base not to far away, but, far enough away from the battle field.  
  
"So, what is up with them using small children for battles?" The lightest haired one questioned, sounding rather annoyed, he added, "And why did we leave, I was really getting into it!"  
  
"Well, if we want to get an answer to your first question, we mine as well ask one of the kids." The darkest haired one said in a matter of fact voice.  
  
"Alright, so, once we're done questioning him, can we kill him?" The light haired one said hopefully.  
  
"This is not a him, Raid." The brown haired one stated.  
  
"Huh?" Raid gave Ashley and the brown haired one a hard stare.  
  
"If it's not boy, it's a girl." The dark haired one said slightly irritated, he then added, "And you never tell them that your going to kill them anyway, because then you won't get anything out of them. Shall we begin?"  
  
"First, maybe we should tend to her wound perhaps?" The brown haired one suggested, setting the girl down on a metal table.  
  
"First maybe you should let me go!" She shouted at them, hopping off the table, reaching for her weapon, but, as soon as she did this, she had three guns pointed directly at her head.  
  
"You will let us treat your wound, and question you, and if you give us your up most cooperation, maybe you will live." The brown haired one told her.  
  
"What are you insane Justin?!" Raid said rather alarmed at this fact.  
  
"I said maybe." Justin responded, emphasizing the maybe.  
  
~*~  
  
After treating her wound, they gathered around her to ask her questions that they wanted to know the answers to.  
  
"Why are they using children?" Raid was the first to ask.  
  
The girl gave them all death glares, and said nothing.  
  
"Dammit!" Raid glared back, pulled out his gun, and pointed it straight at her head. "WHY!?"  
  
"Lower your weapon Raid." Justin said calmly, with that, Raid reluctantly obliged.  
  
~*~  
  
Kurt looked around the base entrance through a pair of binoculars, the battle was pretty much over, and the other kids that had lived in his group were safe on their way home, except for Zero. (AN: Remember Zero was Ashley's nickname during this time in her life.)  
  
After noting that it wasn't heavily guarded, he quickly went over to it and entered it with no trouble at all.  
  
'Now to find Zero.' He sharply thought to himself and started on his way.  
  
~*~  
  
"Victor, any intruders to report on?" Justin asked the dark haired one.  
  
"Yeah, he appears to be a person of much importance." Victor responded after studying the camera screens.  
  
She smiled, "Mr. Bishop!" Then she grew very silent as all three of the teens looked at her.  
  
Justin grinned rather sadisticlly. "So, you know him?"  
  
Ashley quickly shook her head.  
  
"Grab her and we'll go down to meet this Mr. Bishop." He still had a rather large grin on his face, which grew only a little wider when he pulled out a large knife.  
  
"No!!" Ashley screamed at them as Raid grabbed her and followed Victor and Justin to Kurt.  
  
~*~  
  
The little girl continued to kick at Raid, hoping to find a spot at which he would drop her.  
  
"Give it up now, or else you won't have any energy to get away." Raid said rather irritated.  
  
"Why don't you drop me when I'm kicking the crap out of you?!" She shouted at him, her kicks and punches slowing down.  
  
"I'm an android, I feel nothing." He plainly replied.  
  
"You've got to be kidding me!" Ashley said awed by this.  
  
"No."  
  
"He should be around this corner." Victor informed the rest.  
  
"Let her see this, maybe we'll get her to talk, but, then again, it doesn't really matter." Justin grinned. "Victor, let me borrow one of your knives. Better yet, give me the girl's knife."  
  
With that, Victor reached into one of the girl's pockets, and on the first try, pulled out the knife.  
  
Raid adjusted the girl so she could see what was going to happen, which she did, perfectly clear too. It seemed to all happen in slow motion, Kurt came around the corner, then Justin took the knife and rammed it in about where Kurt's heart was, then twisting the blade, Justin got a look in his eyes that kind of glowed with a kind of pleasure in them, while Kurt's screams of agony seemed to only add to the fire. Finally, Kurt dropped the ground, his eyes wide open, far more open then they should have been.  
  
"Raid, drop her, and let's go order a pizza." Justin said, heading back to the main room, Victor in tow.  
  
Dropping the girl, Raid followed as well, the girl got back up, and started hitting at Justin, kicking him, but stopped when guns were once again pointed at her.  
  
"Go on with your life, right now." Justin said coldly.  
  
"I'll get you back for this! You'll see! You'll pay for this in the worst way!" Ashley yelled at him, she turned around toward Kurt, pulled her knife out of him, and continued running out.  
  
~*End of Flashback*~  
  
Justin sat back in his chair, pondering that thought, who was that little girl back then? Did she kill Vera? Then a thought came to him, "I know someone who can help get this solved." With that, he picked up the phone.  
  
~*~  
  
The guy with the goggles waited outside Justin's house with a laptop with a special program that could take the description of someone who was younger, and age them to the current times.  
  
"Ah, thank you for coming over on such short notice." Justin smiled at his friend.  
  
He smiled and said in his best Scottish accent, "That's what friends are for."  
  
The two of them entered the house.  
  
~*~  
  
Ashley opened to door to see the guy with the goggles about to walk out, with a brief convorsation, the two went their seperate ways. Ashley looked around to see Justin looking rather happy at the kitchen table.  
  
"What's got you smiling?" Ashley asked.  
  
"Soon I may find out who killed Vera." Justin smiled, "Then I can get revenge for her."  
  
"How? You don't even have a clue on the person." Ashley said kind of dully.  
  
"The guy with the goggles that just left here has a program that can age a person from the time that they were remembered, to the present time. I remembered this one girl who planned on getting even with me, but, I'm not sure if she did it or not." Justin explained.  
  
"How long will it take?" She questioned.  
  
"About a year." He told her, "It takes that long because this one really needs to be as accurate as possible."  
  
"Alright, I'm happy for you Justin." Ashley smiled, going over to him and hugging him tightly.  
  
"What's on your mind?" Justin asked her noting her worried expression on her face.  
  
"I think Mihoshi should be over here to hear this as well." Ashley finally said after a moments silence.  
  
It didn't take long for the blue-eyed girl to come bounding over.  
  
"Well, I don't know if it's good news or bad news just yet." Ashley started off. "I'm officially pregnant."  
  
Mihoshi gasped happily before hugging Ashley, "That's so wonderful!" Another pair of arms wrapped around both girls, Justin also had a smile on his face.  
  
"This is good news, don't worry, we'll get through this." Justin said softly, then kissed her forhead.  
  
~*~  
  
The night fell quickly, but, Justin and Ashley were still awake, Ashley was going through Justin's book collection on the shelves in his room. She picked up a book, but, still not being able to read well, she crawled next to Justin in his bed.  
  
"Yes dear?" He smiled at her.  
  
"Justin, can you read this to me?" She asked kind of hopefully.  
  
"Ah, this was a good book, I rather enjoyed it." He told her, quickly reading over the cover and the author.  
  
"What's it called?" She gave the cover a hard stare, she didn't recognize the word at all.  
  
"The book is called Earthbound by Danielle Noxwell." He told her. "I have an idea, we'll take turns reading it, alright, you start." He smiled, cracking open the book to the first page.  
  
"In the battle of he-he-he." Ashley started.  
  
"Heaven."  
  
"Heaven and Hell, the grrr-rrreat-eeeessst battle occurred that alll- alll." She gave Justin a look.  
  
"Altered."  
  
"Altered the cooo-cooooou-course of hiiiii-hissss-tooor-y!" She mangaged to get out.  
  
"Very good, you got the first sentence!" He smiled brightly at her.  
  
While they read to each other like this, Mihoshi watched them from the door, it was like Ashley was a five year old, and Justin was her dad, Mihoshi smiled, once the baby was born, Justin would make a good father, indeed he would.  
  
CHAPTER ELEVEN COMPLETE (finally!)  
  
Sorry that this one wasn't completed sooner! *avoids a rotten vegetable* But, I simply had run out of ideas, and after watching Children of the Corn V, I seemed to be able to finish this chapter, go figure. But, I should be started on chapter twelve soon enough! *hit by a ton of rotten vegetables, and manages to get to the top of it.* Har har har.  
  
Random voice: HARLOCK!  
  
*dull look* Ooookay.....Well, until the next chapter, this is your authoress saying: Your God was my co-pilot, but then we crashed in the mountains, and I ate him.....Good times, good times.....  
  
SHINIGAMI FOREVER!!!  
  
Carol "Insert Cool Nickname Here" Maxwell 


	13. No Need for Family

So, I'm back with chapter TWELVE! o.O Wow, this is really starting to get long. So far, everyone is pleased with their characters so far, I still have to get the opinion of another, but, so far everyone's had a good opinions about this. So, you! The reader! Since this has been good so far, you will tell your friends about this and have them e-mail me a review! Or else!!  
  
Justin, Victor, and Raid: Or else what?!  
  
No pie! There!  
  
Victor: *as Weebl* But there is no honor without pie.  
  
Justin: *as Bob* Shakespeare.  
  
Raid: .........*silence*.........  
  
!!WARNING!! This is a lemon.....well, I'm not to sure, there's not going to be any intercourse going on, but, there will be sex and lovin' and all that good stuff. Maybe it's a limon.....Anyway, how the fuck'd I get talked into this? Oh well, I'll never know.  
  
I also don't own Tenchi Muyo, it belongs to their respective creators. Spankyouverymuch.  
  
Okay, so, it's good, it's getting pretty long, it includes lots of craziness its  
  
No Need for Family  
  
About four months had gone by since Ashley's last contact with Kyle and the rest of the gang. Her pregnancy was beginning to show, but, enough to be covered by baggy shirts.  
  
Ashley woke with a start and ran from the bed that she was currently sharing with Justin, she had been sleeping next to him for the past months because they were still working on reading Earthbound.  
  
She finally got to her destination, the place she had been at every morning for the past four months, on her knees, throwing up in the toilet. It was not pleasant at all, but, at least it usually wasn't long before Justin or Mihoshi would be there to rub her back and make her feel better.  
  
Sure enough, she felt a hand rubbing her back soothingly, it wasn't long after that she was done throwing her guts up, she wiped the vomit off the side of her mouth with the toilet paper before looking up to see Justin there, he seemed to have something on his mind.  
  
"What's wrong?" Ashley asked him worridly.  
  
Justin gently moved his hand over where the baby currently rested inside the girl, "It's amazing."  
  
"What is?" She gave him a curious look, placing her hand over his.  
  
"Well, here I am, Justin Perinthal, Lovely Death himself, killer of the masses, helping bring in a new life to this world."  
  
"Maybe like that one legendary bird of fire." Ashley thought for a moment, "I can't think of the name."  
  
"The Phoenix, from the ashes of it's own death, it grows again, starting over with a new life, leaving it's ashes behind." Justin said thoughtfully.  
  
Ashley kind of sat there, pondering this idea, her eyes got a glassed over look, and now Justin looked at her worridly.  
  
"Is something the matter hon?" Justin looked into her eyes.  
  
"So, we're both Phoenixes then, we both have rough pasts, but, with this small baby, it's like we're starting over, leaving our ashes, or pasts, in the past, and looking more toward what's ahead."  
  
"Yeah." Was all Justin murmured, they were both locked in what seemed to be a starring contest, finally Justin broke the silence, "Come here you." He said pulling the girl into an embrace, which she eagerly returned.  
  
Another pair of arms wrapped around the two on the bathroom floor. They both looked over to Mihoshi, who was smiling gently at them.  
  
~*~  
  
Justin and Ashley took their reading outside for the afternoon, they were getting pretty close to the end of the book too, mostly because Justin had done a lot of the reading, but Ashley's reading skills had slightly improved though.  
  
They were sitting in the back yard in the warm sun, Mihoshi was lying out beside them, she looked like she was sleeping already. But, she didn't stay that way for long before she woke up and looked toward the sky.  
  
"That looks kind of familiar." Mihoshi looked awed by the moving object in the sky.  
  
"What does, Mihoshi?" Justin asked her curiously, looking in that direction, but, whatever it was, it was gone when Justin looked up.  
  
"Nothing, it was probably just an airplane." She responded.  
  
~*~  
  
"This has to be the place." Kyle said examining the map Washu had given him, it was decided that dragging the whole gang along would be too much stress on them, Kyle and Jared included.  
  
"Looks pretty nice." Jared commented.  
  
"Now, lets just hope that this is the right house this time." Kyle prayed.  
  
"Yeah, this is really starting to get frustrating, but, not enough to give up on Ashley." Jared sighed, "This is all my fault."  
  
"It's okay, dude, we'll get her back." Kyle smiled a bit, and went up to ring the doorbell.  
  
A pregnant woman answered the door, but, not Ashley, she was tall with straight black hair that was pulled back in a scrunchie.  
  
"Sorry, wrong house." Kyle quickly apologized, with that, he turned on heel and went off, Jared in tow.  
  
Kyle sighed heavily, "Why is Washu doing this?"  
  
"What do you mean?" Jared asked, giving him a curious look.  
  
"She's been giving the wrong addresses for the past four months, she's doing this on purpose, she knows where Ashley and Mihoshi are, why isn't she telling us?"  
  
"We should go back and ask her."  
  
"That reminds me, do you think it's a real good idea to be flying our ACs around?" Kyle questioned Jared.  
  
"Don't know, but, it does save on air fare." Jared pointed out, and they headed back to where they had hidden their armored cores.  
  
~*Flashback*~  
  
It was in England, the day was rather peaceful, clouds hung about, much like they always did, and it was very cold outside. Justin was by a window reading a book that was recently released.  
  
"Yo, Justin, you got work." Raid told Justin.  
  
"What sort of work?" He asked looking up from his book.  
  
"I don't know, some lady said she'd give you the details once you called her." Raid explained.  
  
"Did you get her name and number?"  
  
Raid nodded, then tossed a piece of paper onto Justin's book before he turned around and walked off.  
  
Justin examined the paper, it had the number and the name: Vera Gleaster, scribbled out on it in Raid's incredibly messy handwriting. 'Sounds interesting.' He mused, then headed toward a phone to make the call.  
  
~*~  
  
He spotted her at a table in the coffee shop, she had given him a good description of herself, she was a very beautiful woman, she had long red wavy hair and baby blue eyes, she wore form fitting white sweater with tightly fitting blue jean mini skirt with skin colored stockings and black boots that came up to her knees. She was currently reading a book, there was a plate with a cake on it not to far away from her book, there was also a tea cup that was filled with coffee, which she was currently taking a sip out of, and then she set the cup down.  
  
Slightly shaking his head, he knew he wasn't supposed to be attracted to his clients.  
  
With that out of his mind, he took a seat across from her at the table, she looked up from her book, and placed a book mark in it, and closed it. "So," She smiled at him, "You must be Justin Perinthal, Lovely Death as most call you."  
  
"That would be correct." Justin responded, he found her rather odd though. Here she was less then a few feet away from a raven, and she was acting like he was harmless. "You said you had some business to discuss."  
  
"Yes, I was looking into hiring you as a bodyguard." She told him, taking a sip of her coffee.  
  
"Why do you need one? It's safe enough as it is." He said rather dully.  
  
"Didn't you hear about what was happening in the rest of Europe? It's all over the news." She gave him a curious look.  
  
"I haven't read the papers or anything lately." He explained, sitting back in his chair.  
  
Vera set down her cup, "Well, not too long ago, about a year or so, Germany began to conquer and take control of countries over on the mainland. It's been happening at a very rapid pace, they take over the governments. Well, it's rumored that the next country that they have they're eyes on is England. With this in mind, I want someone to make sure they don't kill me. And especially with you around, I'll have no problem with this."  
  
"What's the pay?" He asked being very straight forward, not letting the girl's beauty distract him.  
  
"I'm think about 500 dollars in American a week, this includes room and board at my place." She told him, she smiled at him rather seductively, Justin showed no reaction to this. "You're just like they say Mr. Perinthal. Serious."  
  
He simply nodded, "And if that's all the business you wanted to talk about, tell me when you want to start, and I'll be on my way."  
  
"I'd like you to start next week, you may bring your companions with you if you wish." She said to him.  
  
"Alright." He smiled slightly, then got her address, and headed back to the house he shared with his friends.  
  
~*End of Flashback*~  
  
That night, once Ashley was asleep, Justin and Mihoshi sat on his bed talking.  
  
"I'm excited about our baby." Mihoshi smiled.  
  
"I am too." Justin smiled back at her.  
  
Mihoshi's expression changed to rather sad, and she just kind of looked up at him.  
  
"What's the matter, Love?" He asked worridly.  
  
"It's nothing," She responded, then kissed him full on the lips. "It's just been a while since we showed each other how much we love each other."  
  
"It has been a while." Justin grinned at her, "So what do you have in mind?"  
  
"Well," Mihoshi started as she started to scoot back towards the head of the bed, Justin joined her up there right away. She continued, "I can start by kissing you."  
  
She kissed his lips tightly, the kiss grew deeper with passion, each of them growing more in wanting each other. Justin ran his tounge over Mihoshi's lips, which she eagerly opened her mouth and let his tounge feel around her mouth, rubbing against hers.  
  
While they were kissing each other, Justin hand's found Mihoshi's breasts and gave them a gentle squeeze, drawing a soft whimper from the blond girl. Justin sighed as he felt Mihoshi's velvety hands move across his chest.  
  
They seperated for just a moment to remove each others shirts, their hands roaming over each others' bare skin, each of them giving off a faint murmur of pleasure.  
  
"What next, Love?" Justin asked her, kissing her lips.  
  
Mihoshi moved Justin so that he was on his back, and she sat on his hips so that she had a leg on each side of his body. She then kissed his chest, she slowly moved down, licking and nipping at his chest, get moans and gasps of pleasure from Justin.  
  
"Yes, Mihoshi, yes." He managed to say through his sighs of pleasure.  
  
She continued to lick and nip down his sides, getting close to his pants then going back up again, Justin's need for some form of relief grew even more. She undid his pant zipper and button, and slid his pants down to about his knees. Mihoshi started to nip and lick the area around his sex, driving Justin even more crazy.  
  
"I surrender, I'm yours, Love, just take me, please." He whimpered to her, he only got a rather large grin from her. "Please?"  
  
The blond girl kind of sighed, but, gave into his request, with that, she ran her tounge along his shaft, causing him to moan a bit louder.  
  
"Thank you, Love, thank you." He groaned as her lips wrapped around the tip of his shaft and she began to suckle on him.  
  
After a while of letting her suckle on him, he finally moaned, "Love, let me pleasure you as well."  
  
With that Mihoshi stopped, and her lips returned to his in a deep passionate kiss. Justin removed the girl's bra and began to suckle on her breast, drawing a small gasp of pleasure from Mihoshi. She moaned a bit louder when he slightly nipped at her, while he did this, he undid her pants, and slid them off with her panties down to her ankles.  
  
Not teasing her at all, he moved down to her sex and licked between the lips of her sex, drawing a rather loud moan from the blond girl. She moaned even louder when she felt his tounge slide into her, rubbing her inside.  
  
"Yes Justin, yes!" She moaned loudly, arching her back slightly.  
  
He continued to lick her and he began to carress her thighs, causing the girl to shiver a bit more in pleasure, and moan slightly louder.  
  
"Come up here Justin." Mihoshi managed to moan out.  
  
Justin came up to her and kissed her lips tightly, Mihoshi got Justin on his back and she got on top of him again, her legs were slightly restrained from her pants, but, she didn't mind. They started to rub against each other, drawing some soft gasps from Mihoshi.  
  
Mihoshi then scooted off of Justin's sex and grasped it in her hands and started to rub up and down, drawing a pleasured sigh from Justin. She picked up the pace, causing Justin to moan even louder.  
  
"Oh love, I'm going to-" He stopped talking when he climaxed onto his stomach, he gave a sigh, and relaxed.  
  
The blond girl got off of Justin and went up to kiss his lips.  
  
"I love you Mihoshi." He said smiling.  
  
"I love you too Justin." She smiled back.  
  
They laid there next to each other, enjoying the moment. Then Justin broke the silence.  
  
"I better get cleaned up." He said, and started to get out of bed, but Mihoshi stopped him.  
  
"Let me do that." With that, she started to lick the white fluid off of his stomach, and he was clean in no time.  
  
"Thank you, Love." He smiled and kissed her lips tightly.  
  
"Your welcome, now, let's get to sleep." She smiled.  
  
With that, they laid down, and fell asleep in each others arms.  
  
~*~  
  
Jared was the first to storm into the Masaki household, Kyle walking calmly behind him.  
  
"Washu! Why the fuck have you been giving-" He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw a man and a woman dressed in Jurain royalty robes, the both looked at him and smiled rahter brightly at him. The woman had slightly tan hair, which was done up rather nicely, and had bright green eyes. She had pale skin, and slightly rosy cheeks. The man was muscular looking, he had pale blue eyes and bright blond hair, much like Jared's, he had slightly tan skin, and a goatee. Jared noted the scar on his right cheek. For some reason, both of them seemed slightly familiar, Jared didn't remember why though.  
  
"Hello there, pardon my language." Jared said, slightly embarrased.  
  
"It's well alright my son." The woman smiled at him.  
  
CHAPTER TWELEVE COMPLETE  
  
W00t. I finally completed this. Yay! Anywho, isn't this an intersting twist? I don't know how I came up with this, and it looks like you'll have to wait another chapter to find out who is the killer of Vera! W00t! This is your authoress saying: IF YOU DON'T REVIEW ME I'LL RIP OFF YOUR ARM AND BEAT YOU WITH IT! Just kidding.  
  
Carol "Insert Cool Nickname Here" Maxwell 


	14. No Need for Home

Well, now it is time for chapter thirteen! Wow, this really is getting long! REALLY! So, this is kind of starting to move a bit more, I actually have a faint idea as to where the next few chapters are going. Emphasis on faint idea though. But, I don't own Tenchi Muyo, otherwise I'd have all the volumes of GTO (23+) and all six DVDs of Excel Saga. Anway, it's really long, it's really cool, it's really surprising it's  
  
No Need for Home  
  
"S-s-son?" Jared mangaed to stutter out, his eyes were wide with surprise.  
  
"That's right." His mom smiled gently at him.  
  
"B-b-bu-bu-but my parents died when I was fifteen, and they didn't look anything like you two, how can you be my parents?" Jared asked, the shock growing bigger and bigger.  
  
"But, they somehow got you, we don't know how though. We lost you when Ryoko attacked Jurai, you were only two years old then, not old enough to remember that it had happened." His mother explained, walking over to him. "You've certainly grown into a fine young man, just like your father."  
  
"A good strong lad." His dad added, smiling a bit.  
  
"But why now, why did you just suddenly come here? You're royalty, couldn't you locate me faster?" Jared looked rather frustrated at the moment, and who wouldn't be?  
  
"Your adopted parents moved around alot, right?" His mother asked.  
  
Jared simply nodded.  
  
"Well, that made it hard to locate you until they found permanent residence on Earth, but, we didn't find out until two years ago, and we've been looking all over Earth for you, and we had help from another Jurai family as well." She told him.  
  
At this point in time, Jared looked to his right to find Ayeka there, shocking him even more.  
  
"When'd you get here?" Jared asked her, jumping a bit in surprise.  
  
"We have something else to tell you son, it is by tradition in my family that the son or daughter is to be arranged to marry a princess by the age of twenty one." His dad told him.  
  
"Who is she?" As if the poor guy wasn't shocked enough by finding his parents, but this was too much! Jared next found himself on his knees trying to comprehend the situation.  
  
"That would be the fine young lady standing next to you." His mother said softly.  
  
"Ay-Ay-Aye-" Jared's brain ceased functioning at that point.  
  
"We know it's a shock to you, but, we were hoping to raise you ourselves, but, we are very sorry for suddenly showing up like this." His mother said softly.  
  
Jared just continued to give them a rather dazed look, almost like he was stoned or something close to that.  
  
"I think we've said too much, we'll be back in a week or two to let what we told you sink it, don't want to rush anything now." His mother smiled gently at her found son.  
  
"Ri-ri-right." Jared managed to say somehow.  
  
"Alright, see you then." His father smiled as well.  
  
With that, Jared's parents hugged him good-bye, and proceeded to walk out the door.  
  
Kyle, who had too been shocked to his bone marrow, finally spoke up. "Has anyone seen Washu, I have to talk to her about the wrong directions she's been giving us."  
  
"She locked herself in her lab for a few days, and she hasn't come out since." Ayeka explained.  
  
"Any idea as to what she was looking into?" Kyle asked her.  
  
"Something about her days at the Acadamy."  
  
"Alright. I'll leave you two to talk." Kyle then turned on heel to head outside.  
  
"Did you know about this Ayeka?" Jared looked rather blank faced, his eyes were dull as they looked her straight in the eye.  
  
She looked down for a brief moment, then stared him right back in the eye, "Yes I did, but, my parents never told me as to who I would be marrying. I remember when I was a young girl, how I would dream about being married to a handsome prince, and how happy we would be together." She sighed happily just thinking about it.  
  
"Then I'm not what you expected, eh?" Jared looked at her with a kind of sad expression.  
  
"No, your not." Ayeka told him, bringing a shocked expression to his face, she smiled and continued, "Your more then I could ever expect."  
  
Jared's expression changed rather rapidly, and he wrapped his arms around her tightly, as did she, the couple stood there in each others arms. Jared broke the silence after a bit, "Ayeka."  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"I love you."  
  
"Oh, Jared, I love you too."  
  
~*~  
  
Ashley was the first one awake, and she did her new morning routine of rushing to the bathroom and throwing her guts up. She finished and walked into the kitchen, usually, Mihoshi was make breakfast, or Justin, but, neither were there. She remembered hearing some noise in the night, but didn't think anything of it.  
  
"Why's it matter to me if they did anything last night?" She thought aloud.  
  
Her stomach gave a slight growl, she headed over to the fridge and pulled out the orange juice and milk, then grabbed a box of Fruity Pebbles and poured herself a bowl of cereal and a cup of juice and sat at the table and started to eat breakfast.  
  
"Good morning Ashley!" A perky voice chirped, it was Mihoshi, Justin wasn't too far behind.  
  
"Morning, I take it you two didn't sleep too much last night." Ashley commented, taking a drink of juice.  
  
Justin sighed a bit, "I'm sorry we didn't include you last night, hon."  
  
"It's alright, I just hope you two enjoyed yourselves." Ashley smiled at them, then returned to her cereal.  
  
Mihoshi looked at her pregnant lover and felt slightly guilty from the events that took place over the course of the night. "I'm sorry we didn't include you." Her eyes watered slightly as she hugged her lover.  
  
"It's okay Mihoshi-sama," Ashley said soothingly, hugging the girl back, "I spent most of the night throwing up anyway."  
  
"Five more months." Justin thought out loud sounding rather worried.  
  
"I'll be fine Justin-sama." Ashley smiled, but then yawned.  
  
He noted this, "Dear, you must be tired from last night. How about this, we all go back to sleep together."  
  
The blue-eyed girl smiled brightly, "That sounds wonderful!"  
  
"Let's go then." Ashley yawned as they all headed upstairs.  
  
They all fell asleep in Justin's bed, with Justin and Mihoshi on either side of Ashley.  
  
~*~  
  
Kyle sat alone at the edge of the dock on the lake, he sighed a bit, and just started to think about what the crazy scientist might be planning now, or what she was doing at the moment. The possibilites were endless. He gave up on thinking about what Washu was doing, it was too hard to think about at the moment, and he went on to think about his team mate, he wondered how she was doing and such.  
  
"Hey Kyle." A voice said as they took a seat next to Kyle, it was Washu herself.  
  
"Hey Washu." Kyle responded sounding very distant.  
  
"I found something about you Kyle." She told, she sounded nervous.  
  
"What'd you find?"  
  
"It's about why you never had any parents, it's about why you don't know anything about your past, it's about why it's all my fault."  
  
"How can it be your fault, I only met you a few months ago."  
  
"You're not human Kyle Jones."  
  
His eyes went wide, "What do you mean?"  
  
"You're an android, you're over seven hundred years old, you were the first step toward making a realistic android." She explained, it sounded like she was about ready to cry.  
  
"But, I'm only twenty!"  
  
"How much memory do you have of growing up, even your teen years?" Washu asked him.  
  
After thinking for a minute, he only remember everything after meeting Jared, "I have none."  
  
"Jared was the one who found you, he activated you, because wasn't he the first person that you ever remember meeting?"  
  
He thought some, "Yeah, he was."  
  
"Would you like to know who your creator was?"  
  
Kyle nodded.  
  
"Me."  
  
"Wh-wha-what?" Kyle's eyes went wide once again, "You made me?"  
  
"Yes I did, you were one of my most prized creations." Washu smiled a bit. "You turned out just as good as Ryoko, and in some ways better."  
  
They both sat there in silence, an angry silence.  
  
"Kyle, are you okay?" She repeated that when she didn't get a response.  
  
"No I'm not fucking okay!" He snarrled at her, giving her an angry glare.  
  
"I'm sor-" She began but was cut off.  
  
"Sorry isn't going to fucking cut it!" He shot at her angerly. "You abandoned me to some be found by some stranger, and you didn't give a shit as to what happened to me!"  
  
"Kyle, I can explain!" She shouted.  
  
"No! Nothing can explain to what you did to me! And then you had sex with me! Jeez! What am I?! Your play thing, is that it?! I don't want to see you again Washu, and if I do, I'll kill you." He stood up, and quickly stormed off before the scientist had a chance to stop him.  
  
~*Flashback*~  
  
Jared walked around a major city on earth, he had just turned nineteen not too long ago. He passed a pawn shop and in the window was a very life-like andoid, it had blond hair, and it wore a red shirt, black pants, army boots, and a brown trench coat. The price read $50, pretty cheap for an android.  
  
He walked into the shop and asked the shop keep about the android in the window.  
  
"Oh, that thing? I found it in the dumpster outside some science lab, it seemed to be in pretty good condition, so, I'm selling to see if anyone would buy it." He explained. "But, it's been here for over two years."  
  
"I'll take it." Jared said, handing over a fifty dollar bill.  
  
"Thank you, hope you have a nice time with that thing." The shope keep smiled.  
  
"Yeah, see ya man." He picked up the android and carried it back to his apartment.  
  
~*~  
  
After cleaning the andoid up, it looked pretty nice. Then, Jared hooked it up two his computer, and booted it up the memory, giving the andoid a name, he named it after his adopted dad, Kyle, and gave him the last name Jones. It had never been activated before, so, it was in good shape. Jared unplugged it from his computer, and somehow activated it without knowing it.  
  
Kyle sat up and looked around, blinking a few times, he gave Jared a good long stare. "Who are you? Where am I?"  
  
"I'm Jared Azerar, you're at my apartment." Jared told him.  
  
"What happened to me, I don't remember anything about me." Kyle said rather confused.  
  
Not wanting to tell him the truth, Jared thought up something, "You were hit by a truck, and lost any memory of your life up until you woke up, you're lucky you're still alive."  
  
~*End of Flashback*~  
  
Ashley laid between her lovers, she had woken up, but, she didn't want to move, and, she didn't have to throw up, so, she was going to stay right where she was. She was slightly nervous, five more months, and then she would be a mother. The blond girl ran her hand over her slightly swollen belly, it amazed her that something was growing inside her, she smiled, yawned, and went back to sleep.  
  
CHAPTER THIRTEEN COMPLETE  
  
W00t! Now, it's on to chapter fourteen, I bet you're all happy. Yeah, I'm figuring right now that this fic will be over soon. *tear* Don't worry, I will write more fics! And there was much rejoicing........Yay. This is your authoress saying: Some mornings it's not worth fighting the clowns under my bed.  
  
Carol "Insert Cool Nickname Here" Maxwell 


	15. No Need for Couplings and Separation

Hello everyone! I'm back with another update to Love and Hate! Whoo hoo! Yeah! Go me! I got some new ideas that will really make you scream and by God I'm going to give it all my might!  
  
Jack Skellington: That's my line!  
  
Oh, hehehehehehe! ' Sorry 'bout that, but, I am going to try.  
  
Oh yeah, I don't own Tenchi Muyo, don't you people know that by now? So, without further rantings, it's got babies, it's got pirates, it's adds more to the crazyness, it's  
  
No Need for Couplings and Separation  
  
Kyle sat down against a tree, his head in his hands, his mind racing, different thoughts, feelings, memories, all were hitting him at once, confusing him even more.  
  
"Why?" Was the only word he said.  
  
"Because that's how she is." A voice chimed near him.  
  
He looked around him rapidly to find the cyan haired woman in the tree he was leaning against.  
  
"Hey Ryoko." He grumbled, looking back at the ground.  
  
She frowned a bit, then floated down next to him, still remaining in the air, "Hey wait a minute, what'd I do?"  
  
"Nothing, I'm just confused and kind of angry now." He responded, still not looking at her.  
  
Smiling a bit, she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him up to her a bit, "Now what did that scientist do to piss you off?"  
  
"Why do you care?" Kyle gave her a side-glance, then resumed looking at the ground.  
  
"Because, we may have something in common." She smiled seductively at him, "C'mon, Ryoko can make it all better."  
  
"She made me, and then slept with me. There, happy?" He growled.  
  
"Washu created me too, bit a shock to my system as well." She explained.  
  
"Are you a robot too?" Kyle gave her a rather curious look.  
  
"No, flesh and bones." She responded. "You look pretty realistic for an android." Ryoko ran her fingers over his cheeks, which turned slightly pink, "You even feel warm."  
  
Kyle grunted, then turned away from her touch. To that, Ryoko just smiled a bit for no reason.  
  
That week passed awkwardly, Washu remaining in her lab the entire time, while Kyle was off doing his own thing, Ryoko tagged along with him with nothing else better to do. Jared knew that his parents would be returning, so, he and Ayeka were trying to sort though what was going on.  
  
"So, how is this going to work again?" Jared asked giving her still a very confused look.  
  
"Just like any other weddings that happen here on Earth, only there are more people that will attend it than just family." Ayeka explained.  
  
"Alright." Jared sighed.  
  
"What's the matter?" She looked at him worriedly.  
  
"Nothing, it's just all my life I've been hoping for a small wedding that would have included my family at the time and friends, nothing as elaborate as this." He told her, hoping that she wouldn't get mad.  
  
She simply smiled at him, "That sounds like that'd be quite lovely."  
  
Jared just smiled at her in return.  
  
Ashley sat on the couch by the window, her hand resting over the baby slightly protectively, she sighed. Her friends hadn't contacted her in a while, she was worried, and what if something bad happened to them? She laid down on the couch, feeling a little bit better.  
  
She opened her eyes when she felt a pair of soft lips press against hers, opening her eyes to find Mihoshi smiling brightly down at her.  
  
"Hello Mihoshi." She grinned at her lover.  
  
"Are you bored?" Mihoshi asked with a slight whine in her voice.  
  
The short blonde girl gave it a little thought, "Only boring people get bored." She then closed her eyes once again. (AN: My U.S. History teacher said that, one of the coolest teachers I've had, until I got her husband. .)  
  
Mihoshi ignored that comment and went on to say, "Maybe all three of us could do something, like go to the movies, or something."  
  
"That'd be nice." Ashley responded. "I heard there's supposed to be a carnival in the area today."  
  
Mihoshi's eyes lit up rather brightly, "That'd be wonderful!"  
  
"What would be wonderful?" Justin asked, drying his wet, long, brown hair, he obviously had just emerged from the shower.  
  
"A carnival." Ashley then added, "Though, I couldn't go on any of the rides though."  
  
"Oh yeah." Mihoshi said kind of sadly, placing her hand over Ashley's.  
  
"But, we could still have a good time." Justin added, smiling at the girls.  
  
"Right!" Mihoshi grinned brightly.  
  
The doorbell rang at the Masaki residence, Jared was the one who answered it, it was his parents, just like he expected.  
  
"Hello mother and father." He greeted them.  
  
"Hello, how are you and your fiancé getting along?" His mother asked, entering, his father was not too far behind.  
  
"Quite well." He told them.  
  
"That's good to hear." His mother smiled. "Now, you and your father bond, while Ayeka discuss the wedding."  
  
With that, they went to their places.  
  
"If I may have one request." Ayeka started, as she sat down with Jared's mother.  
  
"And what might that be?"  
  
"Could this be a small wedding?" She asked her.  
  
"That could be arranged," Jared's mother smiled softly.   
  
The fairgrounds were packed, but, they stayed close to each other. Mihoshi and Justin had been going on a lot of the rides; Justin didn't seem to like them too much, saying he could think of better rides that were free and a lot more pleasurable. To that, Ashley gave him a tap with her fist.  
  
"What can we do now?" Justin questioned sitting down on a bench between Mihoshi and Ashley.  
  
"Get some food for all four of us." Ashley grinned, placing her hand on her slightly protruding belly.  
  
Justin couldn't help but smile, "Alright then, let's find something to eat."  
  
After a while, they got an elephant ear and cotton candy. Ashley ate most of it though, but, she had a reasonable excuse.  
  
They stayed at the carnival, looking at various exhibits, looking at the animals, and Justin and Mihoshi rode a few more rides.  
  
Darkness had fallen over the entire place, and not to long after that, the night sky began to light up with bright fireworks.  
  
Taking a spot on the bed between Mihoshi and Justin, Ashley smiled to herself, she felt safe in this spot, and she felt warm. This is where she belonged, and this is where she wanted to be.  
  
Ashley was now well into the final month, her belly looked bigger then it should for one baby, but, she was very worried at this point of what could go wrong while the baby was being born. She was glad that her morning sickness had teetered off, and she didn't have to put up with that anymore.  
  
She looked out the window, her hand pressed against the glass; she saw some birds in a nest, taking care of their young. The girl smiled a bit at this.  
  
The phone gave a loud ring, and Ashley quickly went to answer it.  
  
"Hello?" She asked.  
  
"Ashley?" The person responded.  
  
"Yes, who is this?"  
  
"This is Jared." He told her.  
  
"Hi." She said dully.  
  
"Listen, I know you're probably still kind of mad about what happened a while back." He started.  
  
"No I'm not. Mihoshi said you weren't mad anymore, so, I'm not mad about it either." She told him. "So, what's up?"  
  
"Well, I was wondering if you'd like to come to a wedding." He told her.  
  
"Who's wedding?" She was curious now.  
  
"Mine and Ayeka's." Jared told her.  
  
"I'll think about it, when is it?"  
  
Jared gave her the date, and the place it was going to be.  
  
"Should I ask Mihoshi and Justin?" Ashley asked him.  
  
She heard Jared gulp at hearing Justin's name. "Sure, I guess."  
  
"You seemed thrilled about Justin."  
  
Jared gave a heavy sigh, "Ash, he's a killer, no, raven is more like it."  
  
"So? He scare you or something?"  
  
"No, I just don't like him all that much." Jared sounded very irritated by this. "Speaking of weddings, when are you and Justin getting married?"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Well, since you are pregnant, aren't you two going to get married?"  
  
Ashley thought for a minute, "I don't know yet, it hasn't been brought up just yet."  
  
"Maybe you should bring it up."  
  
"Maybe, just maybe." She said.  
  
"Well, I better get going, I'm supposed to help Ayeka and my mom plan this." Jared told her.  
  
"Your mom?" This piqued her interest.  
  
"I'll fill you in later. Bye." With that, the conversation ended.  
  
Ashley smiled a bit, sitting at the table resting her hand on her now large belly. She then stood, and went to find Justin, who was currently reading in a chair, she took a seat in his lap grinning a bit.  
  
"Hey you." He smiled, setting his book down at a table nearby to wrap his arms around the girl.  
  
"Hi!" She grinned brightly at him.  
  
"What was that about?" He asked her.  
  
"Jared and Ayeka are getting married, and have invited us to come along." Ashley explained.  
  
"That's nice, when are they getting married?" To that, Ashley prattled off the date and place.  
  
"Justin, I have a question." She started; Justin nodded to show he was paying attention, "Are we going to get married?"  
  
"Ah." He said lowly. Seemingly stunned, and for once looking very much into his advanced years. "I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised that you asked. After all, we are expectant parents and we are very much in love. However," He slumped visibly, though, and let out a weary sigh. "I have, admittedly, been avoiding the whole idea."  
  
"But, why?" Nonaka asked worriedly. "I haven't done anything to upset you, have I? Or is it because of Mihoshi?"  
  
"Love, it is neither a fault of yours nor that of Mihoshi's." He replied. "Quite frankly, it is my own misery; a past I have yet to escape, that has prevented me from fully embracing our happiness."  
  
Ashley was silent for a moment, "I understand." She sighed softly, resting her hand over her unborn child, then stood up from Justin's lap, and sauntered off without a word.  
  
Flashback  
  
Justin stood at her grave, his hand reaching out shakingly to touch the freshly churned dirt. He couldn't believe it; he couldn't accept the fact that she was gone forever now. He held tightly to the engagement she had gotten him.  
  
Victor and Raid were standing not too far away from him, they too were sad that Vera had left them so suddenly, but, their sorrow was just a fraction of what Craeyst was feeling.  
  
"Vera." Justin choked out his lover's name; tears burned his eyes, and finally flowed down his cheeks.  
  
End of Flashback  
  
Grass had since grown over the grave; Justin placed a beautiful bouquet of flowers near her headstone. He felt his heart ache to hear her sweet voice, smell her sweet scent, feel her gentle touch and caresses. He pulled the wedding ring from under his shirt, and held it tightly in his hand.  
  
"Vera, I've come back again." He tried to picture her standing there, like it was back in the old days, when he would go off on an errand for her. He would come back to an always-warm welcome. But, it wasn't working.  
  
"Don't worry," He murmured, "I'll get the person who ended your life. Who took you away from me." He felt salty tears burn his eyes slightly; he blinked at them, holding them off at the moment. "I will not rest until you have been avenged."  
  
He bid his farewells to Vera, he would return another day.  
  
There was a slight awkwardness as the week had passed on, but, Justin and Ashley seemed to get along just fine, almost like that conversation had never happened.  
  
Mihoshi and Ashley were currently sitting at the table, trying to decide what to name the child, they weren't getting too far.  
  
"What about Nate?" Ashley asked.  
  
"Nicole?" Mihoshi questioned brightly.  
  
Justin took a seat, watching the two argue over the baby name book.  
  
"What about Seth?"  
  
"Chris?"  
  
"Too common, how about Adam?"  
  
"That's too common too." Mihoshi argued.  
  
"Chadam?" Justin said randomly, with a bit a of a smile on his face.  
  
The two girls gave him an odd look before cracking up.  
  
"Okay, seriously, how about Dominic?" Ashley started.  
  
"Or we could just name him Justin." The brown-haired man added.  
  
"As good as that could be, nah." Ashley shook her head.  
  
"Christine?" Mihoshi looked kind of frazzled at this point, Ashley and her had been going at this for over an hour  
  
Ashley casually placed her forehead on the table, her arms holding her belly, Mihoshi and Justin both looked at her worriedly.  
  
"Hon, are you alright?" Justin asked.  
  
"Fine, just a bit tired." She quickly responded, "I'm going to go to sleep."  
  
"Do you want me to come with you?" Mihoshi started to stand up as Ashley began to wobble to her feet.  
  
"No." She said a bit sharply as she walked using the wall for balance.  
  
Justin got up to support his lover, "Are you sure you are alright?"  
  
"Peachy." She managed, but, as she said that, she fell to her knees, holding on to her belly.  
  
"Hon, is it time?" Justin asked worriedly, noting the puddle of water under the girl.  
  
The shorthaired blonde nodded before giving a low moan of pain and giving Justin a squeeze.  
  
They managed to get to the hospital with no problems, and managed to get Ashley to the delivery room, now it was just a matter of time.  
  
"How are you feeling, hon?" Justin gently moved the hair out of her eyes.  
  
"Just great!" The sarcasm was very evident in her voice; she then shut her eyes in pain as another contraction overtook her.  
  
Mihoshi held onto Ashley's hand, "Don't worry, we're here."  
  
Ashley smiled a little bit, but then was overwhelmed by yet another contraction.  
  
The doctor came in to check Ashley's progress and smiled, "She's ready."  
  
"That was quick." Justin commented.  
  
"From what I can tell, she's been in labor for a while, she probably didn't notice."  
  
With that, they set Ashley up to deliver the baby, Justin and Mihoshi each grabbed a hand.  
  
(A.N. I know, I'm totally skipping over the whole birthing scene, but, god damn, I don't have one clue on how to write that just yet, so, we're moving right along to this scene, ha!)  
  
Ashley held the sleeping baby in her arms; she was just amazed by him. Justin kissed Ashley and smiled at her.  
  
"Do you want to hold him?" Ashley asked wearily.  
  
"Of course." He responded still smiling.  
  
With that, he took the small child in his arms, 'So this is what it's like, this is what it's like to make life.' Shifting the child into one arm, he traced his finger over the brow of the child; he wiggled a bit, but didn't seem to care.  
  
"He's beautiful." Mihoshi murmured softly to Ashley, kissing her lips, then kissed her forehead. 


End file.
